



Clas 






4 



TIglltS?. 



CDP:aRiGHT DEPosm 




AIIAN LEGE 

of 
VOLCANOES 




(MYTHOLOGY) 



Collected and Translated from the Hawaiian 



fix 



BY 



WP^ D/^WESTERVELT 

AIJTHO?^OF "legends OF OLD HONOLULU," "LEGENDS OF <JHOSTS 
GHOST-GODS," "LIFE OF KAMEHAMEHA," ET 







ELLIS PRESS, BOSTON, MASS., U.S.A 
ONSTABLE & CO., LONDON, G.B 
1916 




Copyright, 1916, by 

William Drake Westervelt 

Honolulu, T.H. 



^'^;%' 



BOSTON. U.S.A. 
PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS CO. 



LONDON 

CONSTABLE & CO., LTD. 

10 Orange St., Leicester Sq., W.C. 

igi6 



NOV 20 1916 




CI.A446481 



FOREWORD 



. However doctors may differ concerning the 
way that our earth came into being, most of 
them agree that in its early days meteoric 
bodies from space flew together and produced 
a hotter globe than at present. Perhaps its 
surface was all covered with vast circular lakes 
of lava such as our telescopes reveal in great 
perfection, ring upon ring, over the surface of 
the moon. On the moon these rings and pits 
are now cold, remnant from a time when the 
gases from the inside of our satellite were bub- 
bling forth from a great internal heat supply and 
bringing with them oceans of slag which seethed 
and swirled in circular pools which formed sym- 
metrically within ramparts of their own spatter. 

The earth is not without traces of similar 
circular ramparts in the shape of long curved 
chains of volcanoes, mostly in the sea, which 
would appear as ridges if the ocean were to dry 
up. The line of the Hawaiian Islands from Kauai 
to Mauna Loa on the large island of Hawaii is 
such a curved ridge, now of enormous height 



IV FOREWORD 

above the bottom of the Pacific, but perhaps 
at one time much lower and more extended 
into something Uke a circle. These islands 
appear to have been built by overflows of lava 
from a curved crack which followed along the 
old rampart, just as we now find smoke-cracks 
along the small ramparts which restrain the 
hot lavas in Halemaumau in the pit of Kilauea. 
The last activity along this crack appears to 
have moved slowly through thousands of years 
from west to east, and each volcanic mountain 
that was built made a stopper to force the Uquid 
out along the crack farther eastward until finally 
two live volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Kilauea, 
were left at the extreme east end, still spouting 
out the hquid and building up domes. 

Some men of science say that the molten Uquid, 
which is mostly an iron-stained glass, foamy 
with the intensely hot gases which escape from 
the inside of the earth, comes from an under 
layer beneath the outer crust of the earth, 
which would be found anywhere if we went 
down deep enough. Others say that it comes 
from scattered pockets of liquid under a stiff 
shell and over a stiffer inner globe. However 
this may be, there is some agreement that 
the depth from which the liquids come is about 
seventy miles and we know that vast quantities 
of gas escape with them. Possibly the gases 



FOREWORD V 

unite chemically with each other and so them- 
selves produce some of the heat. 

It is clear that heat and gas action are 
the motive agents which make volcanoes so 
lively, so much so that simultaneously Mauna 
Loa and Kilauea may maintain liquid columns 
of lava at two different elevations ten thousand 
feet apart. This is accounted for by the fact 
that the melted glass is so charged with gases 
under high pressure that it seethes up and 
down in the cracks and tubes which it occupies 
according to their form and size, and according 
to the coming together or opening apart of their 
walls, just as any sparkling wine makes a foam 
which rises or falls according to the suddenness 
of the uncorking or to the size of the glass into 
which it is poured. 

Sudden uncorking is an apt simile for volcanoes 
in general, as most of them, unlike Kilauea, 
erupt very suddenly and explosively. This is 
due to the way in which the gas-charged Uquid 
has become confined under the solidified moun- 
tain, and so only at long intervals becomes so 
hot and so insinuating that it finds a way out 
and, once released, spouts like the open safety- 
valve of a steam engine until the gas pressure 
is relieved. But even Kilauea is not guiltless 
of terrific and destructive explosive eruption. 
About 1790, thousands of tons of gravel and 



VI FOREWORD 

boulders and dust were strewn over Hawaii 
from Kilauea, covering hundreds of square 
miles, destroying the vegetation, and killing 
some of the people. This would appear to be 
a crisis reached every few centuries, and per- 
haps dependent on a building up of the mountain 
by lava to a certain height where the foam 
column is so confined that it can no longer over- 
flow and so is compelled to explode. 

Mauna Loa is a much more productive volcano 
than Kilauea, for its flows have covered a vast 
territory with new lava within the century past, 
whereas Kilauea has done much less overflowing. 
Everything indicates that Kilauea is older than 
Mauna Loa. Mauna Loa with its flows is tend- 
ing through the ages to bury up Kilauea, and 
it is quite possible that within a few centuries 
there will be flows from Mauna Loa which will 
cascade over the wall into Kilauea crater and 
so make Kilauea Mountain appear to be a mere 
spur of Mauna Loa. Mauna Kea to the north 
appears to have been a great circular volcano 
about one hundred miles in diameter, and when 
it had extinguished itself by too much building, 
its lava took refuge in making two new cones 
out on the edge of the old mountain, namely 
Kilauea and Hualalai. These built up until 
they had nearly exhausted the lava available, 
owing to their height, and then a new vent, 



FOREWORD vii 

Mauna Loa, burst out in the center, filling a 
long spoon-shaped valley between them and to 
the southwest of Mauna Kea. The new moun- 
tain has now built itself up to a height almost 
equal to that of Mauna Kea and probably 
in a few centuries will begin exploding and 
heaping up cinder cones just as Mauna Kea did 
before it finally became extinct. 

Some such story as this outlines the tremendous 
events, explosions, whirlwinds, avalanches, lava 
flows, earthquakes, and fiery blasts which com- 
posed the narrative of the domain of Pele before 
man appeared upon the scene. We do not know 
how much more frequent these things were in 
the old days, but there were probably eras of 
quiet and eras of excitement just as at present. 
It behooves us to give the closest possible atten- 
tion to all the events of the present and to record 
them faithfully, so as to render to the scientific 
historian of the future a consecutive account of 
all the details which will lead up to some great 
crisis in the days to come. 

T. A. Jaggar, Jr., 

Director Mass. Inst. Technology, 
Hawauan Volcano Observatory, 
KiLAUEA Crater, October, 1916. 



PRONUNCIATION 



"A syllable in Hawaiian may consist of a single vowel, or 
a consonant united with a vowel or at most of a consonant 
and two vowels, never of more than one consonant. The ac- 
cent of five-sixths of the words is on the penult, and a few 
proper names accent the first syllable. 

In Hawaiian every syllable ends in a vowel and no syllable 
can have more than three letters, generally not more than 
two and a large number of syllables consist of single letters — 
vowels. Hence the vowel sounds greatly predominate over 
the consonant. The language may therefore appear monot- 
onous to one imacquainted with its force. 

In Hawaiian there is a great lack of generic terms, as is the 
case with all uncultivated languages. No people have use 
for generic terms until they begin to reason and the language 
shows that they were better warriors and poets than philos- 
ophers and statesmen. Their language, however, richly 
abounds in specific names and epithets. 

The general rule, then, is that the accent falls on the penult; 
but there are many exceptions and some words which look 
the same to the eye take on entirely different meanings by 
different tones, accents, or inflections. 

The study of these kaaos or legends would demonstrate that 
the Hawaiians possessed a language not only adapted to their 
former necessities but capable of being used in introducing 
the arts of civilized society and especially of pure morals, of 
law, and the religion of the Bible." 

The above quotations are from Lorrin Andrew's Dictionary of the Ha- 
.vaiian Language, containing some 15,500 Hawaiian words, printed in 
Honolulu in 1865. 

a is sounded as in father 
e '' '' '' '' they 
i '' '' " '' marine 
'' '' '' '' note 
u " " *' " rule or as 00 in moon 
ai when sounded as a diphthong resem- 
bles English ay 
au when sounded as a diphthong resem- 
bles oil as in loud 

The consonants are h, k, I, m, n, p, and w. No distinction 
is made between k and / or / and r, and w sounds like v between 
the penult and final syllable of a word. 



Hawaiian vowels < 



CHAPTER 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Foreword . 
Introduction 



PAGE 

iii 
xi 



PART I— LEGENDS 

I. Ai-LAAU, The Forest Eater . . 

II. How Pele came to Hawaii . 

III. Pele and the Owl Ghost-god . 

IV. The Hills of Pele .... 
V. Pele and the Chiefs or Puna . 

VI. Pele's Tree . 

VII. Pele and Kaha-wali .... 

VIII. Pele and Kama-puaa .... 

IX. Pele and the Snow-goddess . . 

X. Genealogy of the Pele Family 

XI. Pele's Long Sleep 

XII. HopoE, THE Dancing Stone . 

XIII. HiiAKA^s Battle with Demons . 

XIV. How HlIAKA FOUND WaHINE-OMAO 

XV. HiiAKA Catching a Ghost 

XVI. HlIAKA AND THE Se AC OAST KUPUAS 

XVII. LOHIAU . 

XVIII. The Annihilation of Keoua's Army 

XIX. The Destruction of Kamehameha' 

Fish Ponds 

XX. Kapiolani and Pele 



I 

4 

14 

19 

27 

35 
37 
45 
55 
63 
72 

87 
96 
104 
III 
117 
126 
139 

146 
152 



PART II— GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

I. The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific, 165 

II. Hawaiian Volcanoes 170 

III. Volcanic Activity 177 

IV. Changes in Kilauea Crater . . 189 
V. Foundation of the Observatory . . 194 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Giant Tree Ferns on the Road to Kilauea 

Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Fire Fountains in Halemaumau, Kilauea ... 21^ 

Lava Cave 16 .^ 

Decked with Leis of Plumaria 24 . 

MoKUAWEOWEO, Mauna Loa (in eruption 1S99) . 44 y 

Asa-Yama, Japan 52 /^ 

Ice-crested Chimborazo (Ecuador, S.A.) .... 60 •^ 

Mt. Shasta, California 70 ^^ 

Mt. Ranier, Washington 78 ^^ 

Mt. Shishaldin, Alaska 88 '^'^ 

Mt. Katmai, Alaska 98 

Sunset over Leahi 108 '"' 

A Storm on Mount Haleakala 118 ^ 

LOHIAU 128 / 

Two Maori Girls in Ancient Greeting .... 140 •/ ^ 

Twisted Lava at the Foot of VESimus ... 150 ^ 

Smoke Column over Mt. Pelee 160 

Kaimimiki 178 

Hawahan Volcano Observatory 194 

Map of Hawaii 204 

'Note: — ^The great volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands on account of 
their magnitude, gradual slope, character and location do not lend 
themselves to inteiesting photography, as whatever is attempted must 
be done at sea on swaying ships in rough channels some distance out 
and detail is lost, hence the illustrations in this volume include many 
of the vast craters forming the volcanic rim which surrounds that 
"Crack in the Floor of the Pacific" over which the Hawaiian Islands 
are situated. 



INTRODUCTION 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 

Of all the noteworthy groups of islands of 
fire rock in the Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian 
Islands are the most stupendous. 

The crack in the floor of the ocean upon 
which they are built extends from the large 
island Hawaii northwesterly about two thousand 
miles toward Japan. The islands for the first 
four hundred miles are large and mountainous, 
but as the chain is followed toward the end, 
the islands quickly become mere bluffs rising out 
of the sea, or low coral islands which have been 
built on the rims of submerged volcanoes. 

It is interesting to note that the oldest, the 
smallest, and the lowest of these islands lie 
nearest to Japan. One of these — Midway Island 
— is used as the United States mid-Pacific cable 
station. Properly speaking, the Hawaiian Island 
group should cover all the islands in this chain 
two thousand miles long. The mountains of 
the large islands rise from 3,000 to 14,000 feet 
above the sea-level. Between this majestic 



XU INTRODUCTION 

range of island mountains and the *^ Giants of 
the Rockies/' along the western coast of the 
United States, lies a rough ocean valley abound- 
ing in hills and deep ravines with an average 
depth under the sea-surface of about 2,600 
fathoms, or 15,600 feet. 

We know very little about this valley save that 
its floor is covered with evidences of volcanic 
action. Pumice and scoriae appear to be uni- 
versally distributed on the bottom of the ocean. 
Red and gray, and blue and green clays abound. 
The disintegration of piunice is given as the 
chief source for the formation of this clayey 
matter. Sometimes the deposits are permeated 
with meteoric or star dust. 

As the ocean depths draw near the island 
coasts, they grow more and more shallow and 
become a w^onderful fairy-land into which the 
dreamer looks from his floating canoe. Strange 
branching thickets of coral lie below, some- 
times fringed with moving seaweeds and ex- 
quisitely colored sea-mosses, while through the 
coral and moss swim the marvellously painted 
fish of a hundred varieties. Turning and twist- 
ing in and out of coral caves are the spotted 
eels or the great pink or brown anemone-headed 
sea-worms. Sea-urchins and star-fish crawl 
lazily along the valleys and the uplands of the 
coral reef. The surface of the sea is itself 



INTRODUCTION xiu 

covered with ceaselessly moving waves reflecting 
a tropical luxuriance of color. From well- 
known localities hundreds of fishermen gather 
spoil for the sustenance of life for themselves 
and their friends. 

Wonderfully restful is the dream life of the 
winterless seas of the coral caves, and yet even 
to-day fierce floods of boiling lava sometimes find 
their way over the seashore and down over 
the reefs, destroying the life of sea-moss and 
coral polyps, and surrounding shells and fish and 
crawling slugs or swift-moving eels with floods 
of turbid, boiling, death-dealing water in place 
of the clear waves through which they had 
been accustomed to journey. 

Each island has its individual extinct craters, 
but no island has any form of hot geyser action 
such as characterizes the Yellowstone Park of 
the United States, or the region around Rotorua, 
New Zealand. The nearest approach to a 
geyser deposit such as abounds in central Mexico 
is found on Molokai and around the small crater 
Leahi (Diamond Head), near Honolulu. Leahi 
was evidently forced up through coral reefs and 
the mighty heat produced small layers of geyser- 
like deposits. 

The islands have been built up by lava alone. 
This lava rapidly falls to pieces under the in- 
fluence of sunlight and rain, thus permitting 



XIV INTRODUCTION 

plants, such as giant ferns, small shrubs and 
grasses, to take root. These plants break up 
the fire-rock very rapidly and send seeds broad- 
cast to multiply soil-making activities. Thus 
a lava flow in a few years becomes the founda- 
tion for a growing forest. 

The fire-rock, breaking through the floor of 
the ocean to form the Hawaiian chain of islands, 
lost its power first in the far northwest and 
cooled and hardened from island to island until 
it is now making its last appearance on the largest 
and most southeasterly of all the group, the 
island known by the name Hawaii. Here is 
still to be found what is called the largest active 
crater in the world, Kilauea, and the sister crater, 
Mokuaweoweo, from which come the most 
volimiinous lava flows, the latest one being in 
May, 19 16. Kilauea is about 4,000 feet alti- 
tude, while Mokuaweoweo is nearly 10,000 feet 
higher and is on the simimit of Mauna Loa. 
Professor Jaggar, the experienced volcanologist 
in charge of an observing station on the 
brink of Kilauea, accepts the theory of a gas 
connection between these two craters so that 
their activity is mutual as to foam vents, but 
not so close that the lower volcano affords a 
hydrostatic outlet to the lava in the higher 
crater. 

In this place it is well to note a fact which 



INTRODUCTION XV 

makes the scientific study of the active fire- 
lake of Uving volcanoes a very valuable index 
of coming events. Professor Jaggar says: ^'It 
has long been known that the crust of our rocky 
globe rises and falls with a tide similar to that 
of the ocean. From direct experiment professors 
of Chicago University have recently proved a 
tidal movement in the solid earth up and down 
of about a foot twice each day, and varying in 
amount through the lunar month and the 
solar year. There is definitely a daily move- 
ment marked in the lava level of the fire-pit of 
Kilauea, and there is a marked semi-annual 
high level.'' This scientific study of active 
craters is still in its infancy and promises, as 
Professor Jaggar says, '^to create a new science 
in which we may hope at some not distant day 
to predict the periods of volcanic eruptions 
and earthquakes." 

The early Hawaiians incorporated in their 
legends various theories to explain these great 
phenomena of nature, many of which are in- 
cluded in this volume, especially those legends 
which cluster around Pele, the great goddess 
of fire, and Hiiaka, her sister, goddess of light- 
ning. Other interesting legends relating to the 
once active but long extinct crater Haleakala, 
on Maui, may be found in ^'Legends of Maui." 




PART I 

LEGENDS 

I 

AI-LAAU, THE FOREST EATER 

HEN Pele came to the island Hawaii, 
seeking a permanent home, she 
found another god of fire already 
^in possession of the territory. Ai- 
laau was known and feared by all the people. 
Ai means the ^^one who eats or devours." 
Laau means ^Hree" or a '^ forest.'' Ai-laau was, 
therefore, the fire-god devouring forests. Time 
and again he laid the districts of South Hawaii 
desolate by the lava he poured out from his 
fire-pits. 

He was the god of the insatiable appetite, the 
continual eater of trees, whose path through 
forests was covered with black smoke fragrant 
with burning wood, and sometimes burdened 
with the smell of human flesh charred into 
cinders in the lava flow. 

Ai-laau seemed to be destructive and was so 
named by the people, but his fires were a part 
of the forces of creation. He built up the 



2 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

islands for future life. The process of creation 
demanded volcanic activity. The flowing lava 
made land. The lava disintegrating made earth 
deposits and soil. Upon this land storms fell 
and through it multitudes of streams found 
their way to the sea. Flowing rivers came from 
the cloud-capped mountains. Fruitful fields 
and savage homes made this miniature world- 
building complete. 

Ai-laau still poured out his fire. It spread over 
the fertile fields, and the natives feared him as 
the destroyer giving no thought to the fiinal good. 

He lived, the legends say, for a long time in a 
very ancient part of Kilauea, on the large island 
of Hawaii, now separated by a narrow ledge 
from the great crater and called Kilauea-iki 
(Little Kilauea). This seems to be the first 
and greatest of a number of craters extending in 
a line from the great lake of fire in Kilauea to 
the seacoast many miles away. They are called 
^^The Pit Craters" because they are not hills of 
lava, but a series of sunken pits going deep down 
into the earth, some of them still having blow- 
holes of sputtering steam and smoke. 

After a time, Ai-laau left these pit craters 
and went into the great crater and was said 
to be living there when Pele came to the sea- 
shore far below. 

In one of the Pele stories is the following 



AI-LAAU, THE FOREST EATER 3 

literal translation of the account of her taking 
Kilauea: 

^'When Pele came to the island Hawaii, she 
first stopped at a place called Ke-ahi-a-laka in 
the district of Puna. From this place she began 
her inland journey toward the mountains. As 
she passed on her way there grew within her an 
intense desire to go at once and see Ai-laau, the 
god to whom Kilauea belonged, and find a rest- 
ing-place with him as the end of her journey. 
She came up, but Ai-laau was not in his house. 
Of a truth he had made himself thoroughly lost. 
He had vanished because he knew that this 
one coming toward him was Pele. He had 
seen her toiling down by the sea at Ke-ahi-a-laka. 
Trembling dread and heavy fear overpowered 
him. He ran away and was entirely lost. 
When Pele came to that pit she laid out the 
plan for her abiding home, beginning at once to 
dig up the foundations. She dug day and 
night and found that this place fulfilled all her 
desires. Therefore, she fastened herself tight 
to Hawaii for all time.'' 

These are the words in which the legend dis- 
poses of this ancient god of volcanic fires. He 
disappears from Hawaiian thought and Pele from 
a foreign land finds a satisfactory crater in which 
her spirit power can always dig up everlastingly 
overflowing fountains of raging lava. 



LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 




II 
HOW PELE CAME TO HAWAII 

HE simplest, most beautiful legend does 
not mention the land from which Pele 
started. In this legend her father was 
Moe-moea-au-lii, the chief who dreamed 
of trouble. Her mother was Haumea, or Papa, 
who personified mother earth. Moemoea appar- 
ently is not mentioned in any other of the 
legends. Haumea is frequently named as the 
mother of Pele, as well as the heroine of many 
legendary experiences. 

Pele's story is that of wander-lust. She was 
living in a happy home in the presence of her 
parents, and yet for a long time she was ^^ stirred 
by thoughts of far-away lands.'' At last she 
asked her father to send her away. This meant 
that he must provide a sea-going canoe with 
mat sails, sufficiently large to carry a number of 
persons and food for many days. 

*^ What will you do with your little egg sister?'' 
asked her father. 

Pele caught the tgg, wrapped it in her skirt to 
keep it warm near her body, and said that it should 
always be with her. Evidently in a very short 




HOW PELE CAME TO HAWAII 5 

time the egg was changed into a beautiful Httle 
girl who bore the name Hii-aka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele 
(Hiiaka-in- the - bosom - 
of-Pele), the youngest 
one of the Pele family. 

After the care of the 
helpless one had been 
provided for, Pele was 
sent to her oldest brother, Ka-moho-alii, the 
king of dragons, or, as he was later known 
in Hawaiian mythology, ^'the god of sharks." 
He was a sea-god and would provide the great 
canoe for the journey. While he was getting 
all things ready, he asked Pele where she 
was going. She replied, ^^I am going to Bola- 
bola; to Kuai-he-lani; to Kane-huna-moku; 
then to Moku-mana-mana; then to see a queen, 
Kaoahi her name and Niihau her island." Ap- 
parently her journey would be first to Bola-bola 
in the Society Islands, then among the mysterious 
ancestral islands, and then to the northwest until 
she found Niihau, the most northerly of the 
Hawaiian group. 

The god of sharks prepared his large canoe 
and put it in the care of some of their relatives, 
Kane-pu-a-hio-hio (Kane- the- whirlwind) , Ke- 
au-miki (The-strong-current), and Ke-au-ka 
(Moving-seas). 

Pele was carried from land to land by these 



6 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

wise boatmen until at last she landed on the 
island Niihau. Then she sent back the boat to 
her brother, the shark-god. It is said that after 
a time he brought all the brothers and sisters to 
Hawaii. 

Pele was welcomed and entertained. Soon 
she went over to Kauai, the large, beautiful gar- 
den island of the Hawaiian group. There is a 
story of her appearance as a dream maiden before 
the king of Kauai, whose name was Lohiau, whom 
she married, but with whom she could not stay 
until she had found a place where she could build 
a permanent home for herself and all who be- 
longed to her. 

She had a magic digging tool, Pa-oa. When 
she struck this down into the earth it made a fire- 
pit. It was with this Pa-oa that she was to 
build a home for herself and Lohiau. She dug 
along the lowlands of Kauai, but water drowned 
the fires she kindled, so she went from island to 
island but could only dig along the beach near 
the sea. All her fire-pits were so near the water 
that they burst out in great explosions of steam 
and sand, and quickly died, until at last she 
found Kilauea on the large island of Hawaii. 
There she built a mighty enduring palace of fire, 
but her dream marriage was at an end. The 
little sister Hiiaka, after many adventures, mar- 
ried Lohiau and lived on Kauai. 



HOW PELE CAME TO HAWAII 7 

Another story says that Pele was the daughter 
of Kane-hoa-lani and Hina. The oldest and 
most authoritative legends say that Kane-hoa- 
lani was her brother and that Hina was the crea- 
tor of a flood or great tidal wave which drove 
Pele from place to place over the ocean. This 
story says that Pele had a husband, Wahioloa, 
who ran away from her with a sister named 
Pele - kumu - ka - lani, and that Pele searched 
the islands of the great ocean as she fol- 
lowed them, but never found them. At last 
Pele came to Hawaii and escaped the flood 
by finding a home in Kilauea. In this story 
she was said to have a son Menehune and 
a daughter Laka. There is very little founda- 
tion for this legend. Wahioloa was a chief, well 
known in the legends, of a famous family of New 
Zealand and other South Sea islands. Laka was 
his son, who cut down trees by day which were 
set up again at night by the fairies. The Mene- 
hunes were the fairy folk of Hawaii. The story 
of Pele's search for a husband has been widely 
accepted by foreigners but not by the early 
Hawaiian writers. 

The most authoritative story of the coming of 
Pele to Hawaii was published in the Hoku-o-ka- 
Pakipika (Star of the Pacific), in the story of 
Aukele-nui-aiku, in 186 1, and in another Hawai- 
ian paper, Ke Kuokoa, in 1864, and again in 1865. 



8 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

Again and again the legends give Ku-waha-ilo as 
the father and Haumea as the mother of the Pele 
family. Hina is sometimes said to be Ku-waha- 
ilo's sister in these legends. vShe quarrelled with 
him because he devoured all the people. The 
Hawaiians as a nation, even in their traditions, 
have never been cannibals, although their leg- 
ends give many individual instances of canni- 
balism. The Pele stories say that ''Ku-waha- 
ilo was a cannibal," and ''Haumea was a pali 
[precipice or a prominent part of the earth].'' 

The Hawaiians, it is safe to say, had no idea 
of reading nature-thoughts into these expressions, 
thus making them "nature-myths." They prob- 
ably did not understand that Ku-waha-ilo might 
mean destructive earth forces, and Haumea 
might mean the earth itself from whom Pele, the 
goddess of fire, and Na-maka-o-ka-hai, the god- 
dess of the sea, were born. It is, however, inter- 
esting to note that this is the fact in the legends, 
and that it was in a conflict between the two sis- 
ters that Na-maka-o-ka-hai drove Pele to the 
Hawaiian Islands. 

A greater sorcerer married Na-maka-o-ka-hai. 
After a time he saw Pele and her beautiful young 
sister Hiiaka. He took them secretly to be his 
wives. This sorcerer was Au-kele-nui-a-iku. 
Au might mean "to swim," and kele "to glide," 
or "slip smoothly aloitg." The name then might 



HOW PELE CAME TO HAWAII g 

mean ^^ the great smoothly swimming son of Iku/' 
He could fly through the heavens, swim through 
the seas, or run swiftly over the earth. By magic 
power he conquered enemies, visited strange 
lands, found the fountain of the water of life, 
sprinkled that water over his dead brothers, 
brought them back to life, and did many marvel- 
lous deeds. But he could not deliver Pele and 
Hiiaka from the wrath of their sister. High 
tides and floods from the seas destroyed Pele^s 
home and lands. Then the elder brother of Pele 
— Ka-moho-alii, the shark-god — called for all the 
family to aid Pele. Na-maka-o-ka-hai fought 
the whole family and defeated them. She broke 
down their houses and drove them into the ocean. 
There Ka-mxoho-alii provided them with the great 
boat Honua-i-a-kea (The great spread-out world) 
and carried them away to distant islands. 

Na-maka-o-ka-hai went to the highest of all 
the mythical lands of the ancestors, Nuu-mea- 
lani (The raised dais of heaven) . There she could 
look over all the seas from Ka-la-kee-nui-a-Kane 
to Kauai, i.e., from a legendary land in the south 
to the most northerly part of the Hawaiian Isl- 
ands. Pele carried her Paoa, a magic spade. 
Wherever they landed she struck the earth, thus 
opening a crater in which volcanic fires burned. 
As the smoke rose to the clouds, the angry watch- 
ing one rushed from Nuu-mea-lani and tried to 



lO LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

slay the family. Again and again they escaped. 
Farther and farther from the home land were 
they driven until they struck far out into the 
ocean. 

Na-maka-o-ka-hai went back to her lookout 
mountain. After a long time she saw the smoke 
of earth-fires far away on the island Kauai. Pele 
had struck her Paoa into the earth, dug a deep 
pit, and thrown up a large hill known to this day 
as the Puu-o-Pele (The hill of Pele). It seemed 
as if an abiding-place had been found. 

But the sister came and fought Pele. There is 
no long account of the battle. Pele was broken 
and smashed and left for dead. She was not 
dead, but she left Kauai and went to Oahu to a 
place near Honolulu, to Moanalua, a beautiful 
suburb. There she dug a fire-pit. The earth, or 
rather the eruption of lava, was forced up into 
a hill which later bore the name Ke-alia-manu 
(The-bird-white-like-a-salt-bed or The-white- 
bird). The crater which she dug filled up with 
salt water and was named Ke-alia-paa-kai (The- 
white-bed-of-salt, or Salt Lake). 

Pele was not able to strike her Paoa down into 
a mountain side and dig deep for the foundations 
of her home. She could find fire only in the low- 
lands near the seashore. The best place on Oahu 
was just back of Leahi, the ancient Hawaiian 
name for Diamond Head. Here she threw up a 



HOW PELE CAME TO HAWAII ii 

great quantity of fire-rock, but at last her fires 
were drowned by the water she struck below. 

Thus she passed along the coast of each island, 
the family watching and aiding until they came 
to the great volcano Haleakala.* There Pele 
dug with her Paoa, and a great quantity of lava 
was thrown out of her fire-pit. 

Na-maka-o-ka-hai saw enduring clouds day 
after day rising with the colors of the dark dense 
smoke of the underworld, and knew that her 
sister was still living. 

Pele had gained strength and confidence, there- 
fore she entered alone into a conflict unto death. 

The battle was fought by the two sisters hand 
to hand. The conflict lasted for a long time 
along the western slope of the mountain Hale-a- 
ka-la. Na-maka-o-ka-hai tore the body of Pele 
and broke her lava bones into great pieces which 
lie to this day along the seacoast of the district 
called Kahiki-nui. The masses of broken lava 
are called Na-iwi-o-Pele (The bones of Pele). 

Pele was thought to be dead and was sorely 
mourned by the remaining brothers and sisters. 
Na-maka-o-ka-hai went off toward Nuu-mea- 
lani rejoicing in the destruction of her hated 
enemy. By and by she looked back over the wide 
seas. The high mountains of the island Hawaii, 

* Hale-a-ka-la must be classed as an active volcano from evidences ot 
prehistoric fires although long extinct, but the author gives these stories 
in another book, "Legends of Maui." 



12 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

snow covered, lay in the distance. But over the 
side of the mountain known as Mauna Loa she 
saw the uhane, the spirit form of Pele in clouds 
of volcanic smoke tinged red from the flames of 
raging fire-pits below. 

She passed on to Nuu-mea-lani, knowing that 
she could never again overcome the spirit of 
Pele, the goddess of fire. 

The Pele family crossed the channel between 
Ihe islands and went to the mountain side, for 
they also had seen the spirit form of Pele. They 
served their goddess sister, caring for her fires 
and pouring out the destructive rivers of lava at 
her commands. 

As time passed they became a part of the in- 
numerable multitude of au-makuas, or ghost- 
gods, of the Pit of Pele, worshipped especially by 
those whose lives were filled with burning anger 
against their fellow-men. 

The acceptable offerings to Pele were fruits, 
flowers, garlands (or leis), pigs (especially the small 
black pig of tender flesh and dehcate flavor), 
chickens, fish, and mxen. When a family sent a 
part of the dead body of one of the household, it 
was with the prayer that the spirit might become 
an au-makua, and especially an unihipili au- 
makua. This meant a ghost-god, powerful 
enough to aid the worshipper to pray other people 
to death. 



HOW PELE CAME TO HAWAII 13 

Pele is said to have become impatient at times 
with her brothers and sisters. Then she would 
destroy their pleasure resorts in the valleys. She 
would send a flood of lava in her anger and burn 
everything up. 

Earthquakes came when Pele stamped the 
floor of the fire-pit in anger. 

Flames thrusting themselves through cracks in 
a breaking lava crust were the fire-spears of 
Pele's household of au-makuas or ghost-gods. 

Pele's voice was explosive when angry. There- 
fore it was called ^- pu." When the natives first 
heard guns fired they said that the voice of the 
gun was ^^pu.'' It was like the explosions of gas 
in volcanic eruptions, and it seemed as if the for- 
eigners had persuaded Pele to assist them in any 
trouble with the natives. 





Ill 

PELE AND THE OWL GHOST-GOD 




ANY, many years after Pele's angry 
sister Na-maka-o-ka-hai had driven 
her from the island Kauai and 
after the land had many dwellers 
therein, a quarrel arose between two of the 
highest chiefs of the island. They were named 
Koa and Kau. It did not become an open 
conflict immediately, but Koa was filled with 
such deep hatred that he was ready to employ 
any means to destroy his enemy. 

There was a mighty Kupua, or dragon of the 
Pii family, at that time on Kauai. These 
dragons had come, according to the legends, to 
the Hawaiian Islands from the far-away lands 
of Kuai-he-lani, as attendants on the first young 
chief Kahanai-a-ke-Akua (The-boy-brought-up- 
by-the-gods). These dragons had the mana, or 
magic power of appearing as men or as dragons 
according to their desire. 

This dragon was named Pii-ka-lalau, or Pii, 



PELE AND THE OWL GHOST-GOD 1$ 

the one dwelling at Ka-lalau. He was supposed 
to be semi-divine. His home was on the crest 
of an almost inaccessible precipice up which 
he would rush with incredible speed. Koa, the 
angry chief, came to this precipice and called 
Pii to come to him. There they plotted the 
death of Kau, the enemy. Assuming the ap- 
pearance of a splendidly formed young man, 
Pii went down among the natives with Koa to 
watch for an opportunity to seize Kau. 

After a time Kau was lured to go at night to 
a house far from his own home. As he entered 
the door he received a heavy blow which smashed 
the bones of one shoulder and laid him prostrate. 
A great giant leaped out, thrusting an enormous 
spear at him. Kau was one of the most skilful 
of all chiefs in what was known as ^^ spear prac- 
tice." He avoided the thrusts and leaped to 
his feet. He had a wooden dagger as his only 
weapon, but could not get near enough to the 
giant to use it. 

Just as he was becoming too weary to move, 
his wife, who had followed him, hurled rocks, 
striking the giant's face, then seizing her husband 
fled with him homeward. 

There followed a great battle in which Pii 
attacked all the warriors belonging to the 
wounded chief. The legends say that ^Hhis 
giant was twelve feet high, he had eyes as large 



l6 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

as a man^s fist, and an immense mouth full of 
tusks like those of a wild hog. His legs were 
as large as trees, and his weight was such that 
wherever he stepped there were great holes in 
the ground/' 

The warriors fled as this mighty giant charged 
upon them. Suddenly they stopped and rushed 
back. Their chief's wife had caught an ikoi, 
a heavy piece of wood fastened to a long, stout 
cord. This she hurled so that it twisted around 
him and bound his arms to his sides. Stones 
and spears beat upon him, but he broke the 
coco-fibre cords of the ikoi and again drove the 
warriors before him, trying to gain the house 
where the wounded chief Kau was lying. 

There was an old prophetess who had rushed 
to the side of her master when he was brought to 
his home. She was one of the worshippers of 
Pele, the fire-goddess of the island Hawaii. 
Powerful were her prayers and incantations. 

Soon out of the clear sky above the conflict 
appeared Pele hurling a fierce bolt of lightning 
at the giant. It struck the ground at his feet, 
almost overthrowing him. A second flash of 
lightning blinded and stunned him. 

It was a curious element of old Hawaiian 
belief, but they did believe that demi-gods 
and supernatural beings had au-makuas, or 
ghost-gods, the spirits of their ancestors, to whom 



PELE AND THE OWL GHOST-GOD 17 

they prayed and offered sacrifice as if they were 
common people and needed ghost-gods to take 
care of them. 

Pii, smitten by this new danger, called for 
Pueo, his most mighty ghost-god. Pele's fire- 
darts were falling upon him and he was near 
death. Then came Pueo flying down from the 
steep places of the mountain. Piieo was a 
great owl in which dwelt one of the most power- 
ful of Pii's ancestors. 

Pueo hovered over the head of Pii facing Pele. 
Whenever Pele hurled her fiery darts, the owl 
swiftly thrust his head from side to side, catching 
them in his beak, and with a shake of the head 
tossing them off to the ground. 

Then came the warriors in a great body 
around the giant and his ghost-god. Thickly 
flew their spears and darts. Great clouds of 
stones were hurled, and both Pii and his owl-god 
were grievously wounded. Pele's flashes of 
lightning were coming v/ith great rapidity. 

The giant called to his au-makua to fly to 
the mountains, and then, suddenly changing 
himself into his dragon form, he dashed up the 
precipice toward his home. 

The warriors were so surprised at the wonder- 
ful change that they forgot to fight, and only 
realized that this dragon was their enemy when 
they saw him far out of the reach of their best 



i8 



LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 



weapons. They could see that dragon leaping 
from stone to stone, and swiftly gliding up the 
steep precipice. He escaped to his home in 
the mountain recesses and nevermore troubled 
the chief by the sea. His employer was killed 
in a later battle. Pele returned to her home 
in the volcano Kilauea. 




THE HILLS OF PELE 19 




IV 
THE HILLS OF PELE 

Na Puu o Pele 

HROUGH the fleeting hours of Tuesday, 
January eighth, in the year nineteen 
hundred and seven, earthquakes were 
felt all over the island of Hawaii. 
Soon after midnight as the stars of the new 
day Wednesday, January ninth, looked down 
on the melting snows of Mauna Loa, a glorious 
fire-light broke out on the southern slope. This 
light filled the sky above the mountain and 
was visible from all parts of the island. 

The Hawaiians said ^'Pele has come again." 
For some hours great floods of lava poured forth 
with extraordinary activity, quickly covering a 
vast area of land on the side of the mountain 
about four thousand feet below the summit 
crater. Then as the brilliant light of the sun 
took the place of the glow of volcanic fires, 
clouds of eruptive gases and smoke marked 
the course of the lava in its flow down the 
mountain side. Moreover, for nearly two days 
the lava found an underground channel from 



20 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

which it burst forth at times with explosions 
attended by earthquakes which shook the 
western coast of the island. Puffs of smoke 
by day and pillars of fire by night marked the 
course of this underground channel. Thus for 
nearly three days the country throbbed with 
excitement because of the uncertainty attending 
the continued action of the lava flow. Then 
came Friday evening and a sky flooded with an 
ocean of fire. The lava burst from the side of 
the mountain about half-way between the summit 
and the sea in magnificent tossing waves, a 
river hundreds of feet across, dashing over old 
lava flows, burning the ferns and trees of the 
forest which had grown on lava a hundred 
years and more of age. Down it forced its 
way, sometimes cooling in great stone masses, 
crunching and crushing against each other, some- 
times a rough mass of cinders resting upon a 
moving bed of fire and sometimes a swiftly 
moving liquid stream pushing from under a cool- 
ing surface and continually pressing downward 
toward the sea. 

Meanwhile, as this lava flow was making its 
descent, another branch broke away westward. 
A little hill of lava frozen ages before into a 
massive breastwork of black stone standing in 
the front of this flow of 1907 divided it so that 
this western branch took its own way to the ocean 



THE HILLS OF PELE 21 

beach. Thus this mighty force of melted rock 
from the underworld hurled its vast mass down 
the mountain, piling itself over all life in its 
path and leaving only towering heaps of desola- 
tion to cover the earth. Between these two 
branches of the lava river lay stretched a tract 
of ancient lava several miles wide, desolate 
and dreary save for small clumps of trees and 
patches of ferns and grass. 

At the end of this uncovered old lava two 
symmetrical mounds rise from the rugged 
splintered rocks. These are marked on the 
maps of the large island as ^^Na Puu o Pele'' 
(The hills of Pele). 

In the summer of 1905 two friends journeyed 
across the desolate country which has been made 
more desolate by the eruption of 1907. Wearied 
by the hours passed in travelling over lava 
sharp as broken glass these friends found a 
grass-covered resting-place and there waited for 
their fatigue to pass away. In a little while 
some Hawaiians drew near. 

^^ Aloha oukou [Friendship to you]!" was the 
greeting to them. 

^^ Aloha olua [Friendship to you also]!'' was 
the reply. 

^'This place is deserted by almost all life. 
Surely one cannot expect it to add any story to 
Hawaiian mythology." 



22 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

'^Ay, there is a story which belongs to the 
two hills of Pele down by the sea/' 

That summer day, on the lava of long ago, so 
long ago that its date is not recorded, we heard 
the story of the chiefs of Kahuku and the fiery 
and voluptuous goddess of the volcanic forces of 
the Hawaiian Islands. 

Kahuku, the land now under past and present 
lava flows, was at one time luxuriant and beauti- 
ful. The sugar-cane and taro beds were bordered 
by flowers and shaded by long-branching trees. 
Villages here and there marked the population 
which supported the chiefs of Kahuku. 

Two of the young chiefs were splendid speci- 
mens of savage manhood. They both excelled 
in the sports and athletic feats which were the 
chief occupation of those days. Wherever a 
hillside was covered with grass and the ground 
properly sloping, holua races were carried on. 
Very narrow sleds (holua) with long runners 
were used in these races. 

Maidens and young men vied with each 
other in mad rushes over the holua courses. 
Usually the body was thrown headlong on the 
sled as it was pushed over the brink of the little 
hill at the beginning of the shde. Sometimes 
the more courageous riders would rest on hands 
and knees while only the very skilful dared stand 
upright during the swift descent. 



THE HILLS OF PELE 23 

Pele, the goddess of fire, loved this sport and 
often appeared as a beautiful and athletic 
princess. She carried her sled with her to 
Kahuku to the holua hillside, and easily sur- 
passed all the women in grace and daring. 

Soon the two handsome young chiefs saw her 
and challenged her to race with them. For 
hours they sported together, the chiefs led 
captive by the charms of the goddess. 

Jealous of each other, they strove to win 
Pele each to his own home. Thus the days 
passed by, filled with sports and pleasures. 

At last the young men became suspicious of 
their companion, her love was so fitful and 
capricious, sometimes burning with a raging fire 
toward her friends and sometimes filled with 
hot anger on very slight provocation. 

At last a warning came that this beautiful 
stranger might be the goddess Pele from the 
other side of the island; that her home was 
in Halemaimiau (The continuing house) of the 
volcano Kilauea; her attendants the always 
leaping flames; the caves filled with rolling 
waves of fire her dwelling-rooms; that she carried 
the control of the fires of the underworld with her 
wherever she went. 

The young chiefs talked together concerning 
their experiences and then began to draw away 
from their dangerous visitor. 



24 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

But Pele made it difficult for them to escape 
from her presence. She continually called them 
to race with her. 

At last the grass began to die. The soil 
became warm, and the heat intense. Slight 
earthquakes made themselves felt. The tides 
were more snappy as they cast their surf waves 
along the beach. 

The chiefs became afraid. Pele saw it and 
was overcome with anger. Her appearance 
changed. Her hair floated out in tangled masses, 
touched by the breath of hot winds. Her arms 
and limbs shone as if enwrapped with fire. 
Her eyes blazed like lightning, and her breath 
poured forth in volumes of smoke. In great 
terror the chiefs rushed toward the sea. 

Pele struck the ground heavily with her feet. 
Again and again she stamped in wrath. Earth- 
quakes swept the lands of Kahuku. Then the 
awful fiery flood broke from the underworld, 
and swept down over Kahuku. On the crest of 
the falHng torrent of fire rode Pele, flashing the 
fires of her anger in great explosions above the 
flood. 

The chiefs tried to flee toward the north, but 
Pele hurled the fiercest torrents beyond them to 
turn them back. Then they fled toward the 
south, but Pele again forced them back upon 
their own lands. 




DECKED WITH LEIS OF PLUMARIA 



THE HILLS OF PELE 25 

Then they hurried down to the beach, hoping 
to catch one of their canoes and escape on the 
ocean. Quickly these young men leaped on. 
Swiftly came the fiery flood behind them. Pele 
was urging the underworld forces to their ut- 
most speed. Shrieking like fierce, whistling 
winds, tearing her hair and throwing it away in 
bunches, Pele sped after the chiefs. The floods 
of lava, obeying the commands of the goddess, 
spread out over all the land of the chiefs so that 
from the mountain to the sea the luxuriant 
lands became desolate. 

Nearer and nearer to the sea came the swift 
runners. It seemed as if they had found the 
way of escape, for the surf waves waited eagerly 
to welcome them, and a canoe lay near the beach. 

But Pele leaped from the flowing lava and 
threw her burning arms around the nearest one 
of her former lovers. In a moment the lifeless 
body was thrown to one side. The lava piled 
itself up around it, while at the command of 
Pele a new gush of lava rose up like a fresh 
crater and swallowed up all that was left. 

The other chief was petrified by fear and 
horror. In a moment Pele seized him and called 
for another outburst of lava, which rose up 
rapidly around them. In a few minutes the 
Hills of Pele were built. 

Thus the lovers of Pele died and thus their 



26 



LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 



tombs were made. For many years, even from 
ancient times, they have marked the destruction 
of the beautiful lands of Kahuku. 

Later lava flows have turned aside to spare 
the monuments of the chiefs with whom Pele 
played for a time, and the two hills of Pele are 
still seen near the shore of the ocean. 






PELE AND THE CHIEFS OF PUNA 

KUMU-KAHI 

CCORDING to the legends, Pele was 
very quickly angered. Her passions 
were as turbulent as the lake of fire in 
her crater home. Her love burned, but 
her anger devoured. She was not safe. 

Kumu-kahi was a chief who pleased Pele. 
According to the legends he was tall, well built, 
and handsome, and a great lover of the ancient 
games. Apparently he had known Pele only as 
a beautiful young chief ess; for one day, when he 
was playing with the people, an old woman with 
fiery eyes came to him demanding a share in the 
sports. He ridiculed her. She was very per- 
sistent. He treated her with contempt. In a 
moment her anger flashed out in a great fountain 



28 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

of volcanic fire. She chased the chief to the sea, 
caught him on the beach, heaped up a great 
mound of broken lava over him, and poured her 
lava flood around him and beyond him far out 
into the ocean. 

Thus the traditions say Cape Kumu-kahi, the 
southeast point of the island Hawaii, was formed. 
Here kings, chiefs, and priests have come for ages 
to build great piles of lava rock with many cere- 
monies. The natives call these * ' funeral mounds'' 
and name them after the builders, although the 
persons themselves were seldom placed under- 
neath in burial. 

When Hawaiians, who had been ill, recovered, 
they frequently vowed to make a ^'journey of 
health." This meant that they came to the 
place now known as Hilo Bay. There they 
bathed by the beautiful little Coconut Island, 
fished up by the demi-god Maui. There they 
sw^am around a stone known as Moku-ola (The- 
island-of-life). Then they walked along the sea- 
shore day after day until they were below the 
volcano of Kilauea. They w^ent up to the pit of 
Pele, offered sacrifices, and then followed an 
overland path back to Hilo. It was an ill omen 
if for any reason they went back by the same 
path. They must make the *^ journey of health'' 
with the face forward. Hopoe (The dancing 
stone), Kapoho (The green lake), and Kumu-kahi 



PELE AND THE CHIEFS OF PUNA 29 

were among the places which must be visited. 
They all have their Pele legends. 

On the shortest path from Kumu-kahi to Ki- 
lauea is a great field of many acres of lava stimips. 
These, according to the best theories, were made 
by immense floods of lava pouring down upon 
large forests of living trees. Lava always cools 
rapidly on the surface, therefore, as the lava 
spread out through the forest, very soon there 
was a great floor of hot black stone pierced by 
a multitude of trees. Some of these burned very 
slowly. The flowing lava would easily push itself 
up through the small opening around a burning 
tree and would keep on pushing and building up 
a higher and higher cone of lava as the tree burned 
away, until the tree was destroyed. These cones 
rise sometimes ten to fifteen feet above the lava 
floor. They frequently have well-preserved 
masses of charcoal as their core. This is nature's 
method of making lava stumps. This field of 
hundreds of lava stumps has a different origin 
according to the legends. 

Papa-lau-ahi 

Papa-lau-ahi (The-fire-leaf-smothered-out) was 
a chief who at one time ruled the district of Puna. 
He excelled in the sports of the people. It was 
his great delight to gather all the families to- 



30 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

gether and have feasts and games. He chal- 
lenged the neighboring chiefs to personal con- 
tests of many kinds and almost always was the 
victor. 

One day the chiefs were sporting on the hill- 
sides around a plain where a multitude of people 
could see and applaud. Pele heard a great noise 
of shouting and clapping hands and desired to see 
the sport. In the form of a beautiful woman she 
suddenly appeared on the crest of one of the hills 
down which Papa-lau-ahi had been coasting. 
Borrowing a sled from one of the chiefs she pre- 
pared to race with him. He was the more skil- 
ful and soon proved to her that she was beaten. 
Then followed taunts and angry words and the 
sudden absolute loss of all self-control on the part 
of Pele. She stamped on the ground and floods 
of lava broke out, destroying many of the chiefs 
as they fled in every direction. 

The watching people, overcome with wonder 
and fear, were turned into a multitude of pillars * 
of lava, never changing, never moving through 
all the ages. 

Papa-lau-ahi fled from his antagonist, but she 
rode on her fiery surf waves, urging them on 
faster and faster until she swept him up in the 
flames of fire, destroying him and all his posses- 
sions. 

* These are the lava stumps easily visited by any lover of the curious 
who journeys to Kilauea. 



PELE AND THE CHIEFS OF PUNA 31 

Ke-lii-kuku 

Another chief was the one who was called in 
Hawaiian legends, Ke-lii-kuku (The-Puna-chief- 
who-boasted). He was proud of Puna, cele- 
brated as it was in song and legend. 

"Beautiful Puna! 
Clear and beautiful, 
Like a mat spread out. 
Shining like sunshine 
Edged by the forest of Malio." — Ancient Chant, 

Ke-lii-kuku visited the island Oahu. He al- 
ways boasted that nothing could be compared 
with Puna and its sweet - scented trees and 
vines. 

He met a prophet of Pele, Kane-a-ka-lau, 
whose home was on the island Kauai. The 
prophet asked Ke-lii-kuku about his home land. 
The chief was glad of an opportunity to boast. 
According to the ^^ Tales of a Venerable Savage" 
the chief said: ^^I am Ke-lii-kuku of Puna. My 
country is charming. Abundance is found there. 
Rich sandy plains are there, where everything 
grows wonderfully." 

The prophet ridiculed him, saying: '^Return 
to your beautiful country. You will find it deso- 
late. Pele has made it a heap of ruins. The 
trees have descended from the mountains to the 



32 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

sea. The ohia * and puhala f are on the shore. 
The houses of your people are burned. Your 
land is unproductive. You have no people. 
You cannot live in your country any more." 

The chief was angry and yet was frightened, so 
he told the prophet that he would go back to his 
own land and see if that word were true or false. 
If false, he would return and kill the prophet 
for speaking in contempt of his beautiful land. 
Swiftly the oarsmen and the mat sails took the 
chief back to his island. As he came around the 
eastern side of Hawaii he landed and climbed to 
the highest point from which he could have a 
glimpse of his loved Puna. There in the dis- 
tance it lay under heavy clouds of smoke cov- 
ering all the land. When the winds lifted the 
clouds, rolling them away, he saw that all his 
fertile plain was black with lava, still burning 
and pouring out constantly volumes of dense 
smoke. The remnants of forests were also cov- 
ered with clouds of smoke through which darted 
the flashing flames which climbed to the tops of 
the tallest trees. 

Pele had heard the boasting chief and had 
shown that no land around her pit of fire was 
secure against her will. 

Ke-lii-kuku caught a long vine, hurled it over 
a tree, and hung himself. 

* Ohia ha or Paihi =Syzygium. Ohia-lehua=Metrosideros polymor- 
pha sandwicense. t Hala or Lahala = Pandanus adoratissiraus. 



PELE AND THE CHIEFS OF PUNA 



2>Z 



Kjv-pa-pala 



:r^lM 



V\' 



Another chief by the name of Ka-pa-pala heard 
of Pele. He went to the edge of 
the crater and there found a group 
of beautiful women. He was wel- 
comed by Pele. They delighted in 
each other. Many were the games 
and contests. The chief was so fre- 
quently the victor that at last he 
boasted that he could ride his surf- 
board on the waves of her lake of 
fire. She was angry at the thought 
that he dared to desecrate her 
sacred home. He defied her, caught 
his surf-board, threw it on a wave 
as it struck the encircling wall, 
then leaped on his board and 
launched out on the fire-waves. 
It is said that, to show his con- 
tempt for the power of Pele, he 
even stood on his head and was ^ 

carried safely for a time on the crest of the red 
rolling surf. 

Pele became very angry as she saw him fleeing 
from her over the lake of fire, so she called to her 
fire-servants, the au-makuas, or ghost-gods, of the 
crater, and they hurled other fire-waves across 
the lake against the one the chief was riding. 



\*/ 



fi 



"iyA 



34 



LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 



These twisted and turned that wave. They 
broke its crest. The chief and his surf-board 
were tossed up in a whirlpool of fire. Then he 
dropped into the heart of the flame and was 
lost. 




^eo<Vv\ C\ool\ 



PELE'S TREE 



35 




VI 
PELE'S TREE 

HIA-LEHUA* is the native name for a 
tree which abounds in Puna, the 
region of the volcanic home of the 
goddess Pele. It has a continual 

growth of delicately shaded leaves. The young 

leaf, pink tinted, 

comes as the old 

leaf shading into 

gray falls from the 

tree. Flowers which 

are like beautiful 

red fringed balls 

are always found 

glorifying the vari- 
colored foliage. 

Here honey-loving 

birds and bees find 

their best feeding- 
places. 

The ohia forests grow abundantly and rapidly 

on lava even recently thrown out by the eruptions 

from Pele's lake of fire. The ohia roots seem 




* Metrosideros polymorpha. 



36 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

to find food and drink, where the numerous 
cracks of a lava field open in every direction, 
and vie with the tree ferns in making life take 
the place of the desolation caused by the vol- 
canic floods. 

About half way between the city of Hilo and 
the volcano Kilauea, there stood for many, 
many years an old ohia tree. It was so old 
that it had become legendary and was known 
as ^^Ka laau o Pele" (The tree of Pele). When- 
ever a native came near this tree, he began to 
search for certain leaves or fruits which he could 
lay beneath the tree as an offering before he dared 
to try to pass beyond. These sacrifices were 
supposed to appease the wrath of the goddess 
and assure the traveller safe passage through 
Pele's dominions. 




PELE AND KAHA-WALI 37 




VII 
PELE AND KAHA-WALI 

OR a long, long time the Hawaiians 
have had the proverb ^^ Never abuse 
an old woman; she might be Pele.'' 
This saying was applied to several 
legends, but it belonged especially to the story 
of her punishment of Kaha-wali. Kaha-wali 
was a chief born and brought up on the island 
Kauai. This island was one of the first on 
which volcanic fires were extinct. It became 
^^The Garden Island." It was the most lux- 
uriant in vegetation. Its hillsides were covered 
with grass which afforded the very best facilities 
for sliding down hill. 

Hee-nalu meant ^^surf-riding," Heeholua meant 
^^sled-riding," or sliding down grassy hillsides. 
The sleds were usually made of hard, dark 
kauila* wood. Runners made from this wood 
became very smooth and highly polished. They 
were seven, twelve, or even eighteen feet long. 
They were turned up a little at the front end, 
where they were two to four inches apart. 
They were fastened together with a number of 

* Columbrina oppositifolia. 



Li-Si 



38 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

crosspieces almost the full length of the runners. 
At the rear end the runners were about 
six inches apart. There were long side- 
pieces almost the full length of the sled. 
fl Sometimes a narrow piece of matting 
was fastened over the whole length of 
the sled, although usually only a small 
piece was provided for the chest to rest 
upon. The person using the sled grasped 
the right-hand side stick with his right 
hand, then, running swiftly to the brow 
of the hill, caught the stick of the left 
side and, throwing himself on the sled, 
hurled it over the edge and down the 
hill, sometimes sliding one hundred to 
two hundred yards or more. The sled 
was so narrow and the difficulty of stay- 
ing on it so great, that it became one 
of the most interesting contests in which 
chiefs and people delighted. Much prac- 
/Hl ^ tice was necessary before the rider could 
maintain his or her balance, guide the 
sled, and gain a velocity which would 
carry them far beyond any competitor. 
Sometimes when the holua track was 
worn close down to the earth, grass, 
rushes, and even leaves, were carefully 
strewn over the ground to make easy 
gliding for the polished runners. 



PELE AND KAHA-WALI 39 

Kaha-wali excelled all the Kauai chiefs in 
this sport, so he determined to test his skill 
on the other islands. He had heard of a beauti- 
ful young chiefess on the distant island Hawaii 
who was a wonderful holua rider. His first 
great contest should be with Pele. He prepared 
for a long journey, and a stay of many months 
or even years. Some authorities have placed 
the time of this visit to Hawaii as about the year 

1350- 
Kaha-wali filled his canoes with choice sleds, 

mats, cloaks, calabashes, spears, in fact, all the 

property needed for use during the visit he had 

in mind. He took his wife, Kanaka-wahine, his 

two children, his sister Koai, his younger brother, 

and Ahua, one of the young chiefs who was his 

aikane (intimate friend), and also his necessary 

retainers and their baggage, and among the 

most cherished of all, his favorite pig, Aloi-puaa. 

This pig was so important that its name has been 

made prominent in all the Kaha-wali legends. 

They journeyed from island to island. Evi- 
dently his father, 0-lono-hai-laau, and others of 
the family came as far as the island Oahu and 
there remained. 

Kaha-wali passed on to Hawaii and landed 
at Kapoho in the district of Puna. Apparently 
the chiefs of this part of the island made Kaha- 
wali welcome, for he built houses for himself and 



40 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

his retainers and settled down as if he belonged 
to the country. 

The visitors from Kauai entered heartily into 
the sports of the people and after a time climbed 
some lava hills and began holua races. These 
hills were composed of lava, which easily turned 
into rich soil when subdued by alternate rain 
and sunshine. Grass and ferns soon clothed 
them with abundant verdure. Holua courses 
were laid out, and the chiefs had splendid sport. 
Crowds came to watch and applaud. Musicians, 
dancers, wrestlers, and boxers added to the in- 
terest. 

Kaha-wali and Ahua were frequently racing 
with each other. After each race there were 
dancing and games among the people. One 
day while racing Kaha-wali stuck his spear, 
which was peculiarly broad and long, into the 
ground at the end of the race course, then 
climbed the hill which bore the name Ka-hale-o- 
ka-mahina (The-house-of-the-moon). Ellis, who 
wrote the story of the missionary tour of 1823, 
said that the race course was pointed out to 
him as Ka-holua-ana-o-Kaha-vari (The-sliding- 
place-of-Kaha-vari). He thus describes the hill: 
^^It was a black frowning crater about one 
hundred feet high, with a deep gap in the rim 
on the eastern side from which the course of a 
current of lava could be distinctly traced.'' 



PELE AND KAHA-WALI 41 

A woman of ordinary appearance came to the 
hilltop as Kaha-wali and Ahua prepared for a 
race. She said: ^^I wish to ride. Let me take 
your holua.'' The chief replied: ^^What does 
an old woman like 3^ou want with a holua? 
You do not belong to my family, that I should 
let you take mine.'' Then she turned to Ahua 
and asked for his holua. He kindly gave it to 
her. Together the chief and the woman dashed 
to the brow of the hill, threw themselves on 
their holuas and went headlong down the steep 
course. The woman soon lost her balance. 
The holua rolled over and hurled her some 
distance down the hill. She challenged the 
chief to another start, and when they were on 
the hilltop asked him for his papa-holua. She 
knew that a high chief's property was very sacred 
and could not be used by those without rank. 

Kaha-wali thought this was a common native 
and roughly refused her request, saying: ^^Are 
you my wife [i.e., my equal in rank], that you 
should have my holua?" Then he ran swiftly, 
started his holua, and sped toward the bottom 
of the hill. 

Anger flashed in the face of the woman, for 
she had been spurned and deserted. Her eyes 
were red like hot coals of fire. She stamped on 
the ground. The hill opened beneath her and 
a flood of lava burst forth and began to pour 



42 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

down into the valley, following and devastating 
the holua course, and spreading out over the 
whole plain. 

Assuming her supernatural form as the goddess 
of fire, Pele rode down the hill on her own papa- 
holua on the foremost wave of the river of fire. 
She was no longer the common native, but was 
the beautiful young chiefess in her fire-body, 
eyes flaming and hair floating back in clouds of 
smoke. There she stood leaning forward to 
catch her antagonist, and urging her fire-waves 
to the swiftest possible action. Explosions of 
bursting lava resounded like thunder all around 
her. Kaha-wali leaped from his holua as it 
came to the foot of the hill, threw off his kihei 
(cloak), caught his spear, and, calling Ahua to 
follow, ran toward the sea. 

The valley quickly filled with lava, the people 
were speedily swallowed up. Kaha-wali rushed 
past his home. Ellis says: ^^He saw his mother 
who lived at Ku-kii, saluted her by touching 
noses, and said, ^ Aloha ino oe eia ihonei paha oe 
e make ai, ke ai manei Pele' [Compassion rest on 
you. Close here perhaps is your death. Pele 
comes devouring]. 

^^Then he met his wife. The fire- torrent was 
near at hand. She said: ^Stay with me here, 
and let us die together.' He said: 'No, I go! 
I go!'" 



PELE AND KAHA-WALI 43 

So he left his v/ife and his children. Then he 
met his pet hog, Aloi-puaa, and stopped for a 
moment to salute it by rubbing noses. The hog 
was caught by Pele in a few moments and 
changed into a great black stone in the heart 
of the channel and left, as the centre of the 
river of fire flowed on to destroy the two fleeing 
chiefs. — Rocks scattered along the banks of 
this old channel are pointed out as the individ- 
uals and the remnants of houses destroyed by 
Pele. 

The chiefs came to a deep chasm in the earth. 
They could not leap over it. Kaha-wali crossed 
on his spear and pulled his friend over after him. 
On the beach he found a canoe left by his younger 
brother who had just landed and hastened 
inland to try to save his family. Kaha-wali and 
Ahua leaped into the boat and pushed out into 
the ocean. 

Pele soon stood on the beach hurling red-hot 
rocks at him which the natives say can still be 
seen lying on the bottom of the sea. Thus 
did Kaha-wali learn that he must not abuse 
an old woman, for she might be Pele. 

— The story often ends with the statement that 
Kaha-wali joined his father on the island Oahu 
and there remained. Other legends say he went 
to Kauai and there gathered a company of the 



44 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

most powerful priests to return to Hawaii for 
the destruction of Pele and her volcanic fires. 

Six of these priests, according to Mrs. Rufus 
Lyman, who owned the land of this adventure 
and whose descendants still hold the same, came 
to Hawaii with the defeated Kaha-wali. These 
were Hale-mau-mau, Ka-au-ea, Uwe-kahuna, Ka- 
ua-nohu-nohu, Ka-lani-ua-ula, and Ka-pu-e-uli. 

They took their positions near Kilauea and 
challenged Pele, crying out: ^^ Where is that 
strange and wonderful woman? '' Ka-au-ea (The 
fiery current) an-d Uwe-kahuna (priest weeping) 
and Hale-mau-mau (House of ferns) were 
kahunas, or priests of wonderful powxr. They 
were the only ones who left their names to 
localities in the neighborhood of Kilauea. 

Hale-mau-mau had his house of ferns for a 
long time upon a precipice, back of the present 
Volcano House. From there the name has 
been changed both in meaning and location to 
the lava pit, the pit of Pele, in the living lake of 
fire, where it is called Hale-mau-mau (the- 
enduring-house). Ka-au-ea was the name given 
to a precipice in the walls of the crater. Uwe- 
kahuna was a high hill on the northwestern 
side of the crater, overlooking the fire-pit and 
the region around Kilauea. These priests who 
were also of the rank of chiefs were all killed by 
Pele except Kaha-wali, who escaped to Oahu. — 




©■■ ii%i0 



MOKUAWEOWEO, MAUNA LOA, IN ERUPTION, 1899 



ELE AND KAMA-PUAA 45 



VIII 
PELE AND KAMA-PUAA 

Note: The adventure of the demi-god Kama-puaa has 
been given in "The Legends of Old Honolulu." But 
because it is one of the most widely told of the Pele 
stories, it is repeated here. 

AMA-PUAA was born on the island 
of Oahu, where he was known as a 
very powerful and destructive monster, 
also as a peculiarly handsome and even 




lovable chief. He was a kupua — a being who 
could appear at will as an animal or man. He 
usually appeared as a man, but when his brutal 
desires to destroy overcame him or when he 
wished to hide from any one he adopted the 
form of a hog. He had the two natures, human 
and brutal. He had been endowed with super- 
human powers, according to the legends, and 
was many times called Puaa-akua (Hog-god) of 
Oahu. 

There is a curiously marked fish with an 
angular body and very thick skin, which is said 
by the Hawaiians to sometimes utter a grunt- 
ing sound. It is named the Humuhumu-nu- 
kunuku-a-puaa (The-grun ting-angular-pig) . It 



46 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

was claimed that the hog-man could change 
himself into this fish as easily as into a hog. 
An ancient chant thus described him: 







''O Kama-puaa! 
You are the one with rising bristles. 
O Rooter! O Wallower in ponds! 
O remarkable fish of the sea! 
O youth divine!" 



Kama-puaa had a beautiful magic shell — the 
leho. This was a fairy boat in which he usually 
journeyed from island to island. When he 
landed he took this shell in his hands and it 
grew smaller and smaller until he could tuck it 
away in his loin cloth. When he sailed away 
alone it was just large enough to satisfy his need. 
If some of his household travelled with him, the 
canoe became the large ocean boat for the family. 

Some of the legends say that as a fish Kama- 
puaa swam through the seas to Hawaii, but 
others say that he used his leho boat, visited the 
different islands and passed slowly to the south- 
eastern point of Hawaii to Cape Kumu-kahi. 

He crossed the rough beds of lava, left by 
recent eruptions. He threaded his way through 
forests of trees and ferns and at last stood on 
the hills looking down upon the lake of fire. 
Akani-kolea was the hill upon which he stood 
clearly outlined against the sky. 



PELE AND KAMA-PUAA 47 

Here was Ka-lua-Pele (The-pit-of-Pele), the 
home of the goddess of fire. Here she rested 
among glorious fountains of fire; or, rising in 
sport, dashed the flaming clouds in twisted 
masses around the precipices guarding her 
palace. Here Kama-puaa looked down upon a 
fire-dance, wherein Pele and her sisters, wrapped 
in filmy gowns of bluish haze, swept back and 
forth over the lake of fire, the pressure of their 
footfalls marked by hundreds of boiling bubbles 
rising and bursting under their tread, until the 
entire surface was a restless sea covered with 
choppy waves of fire. 

Suddenly a great cloud concealed the house- 
hold, then rolled away, and all the surrounding 
cliffs were clearly revealed. One of the sisters 
looking up saw Kama-puaa and cried out: ^'Oh, 
see that fine-looking man standing on Akani- 
kolea. He stands as straight as a precipice. 
His face is bright like the moon. Perhaps if 
our sister frees him from her tabu he can be the 
husband of one of us.'' 

The sisters looked. They heard the tum-tum- 
tum of a small hand-gourd drum, they saw a 
finely formed athletic stranger, who was dancing 
on the hilltop, gloriously outlined in the splendor 
of the morning light. 

Pele scorned him and said: ^^That is not a 
man, but a hog. If I ridicule him he will be 



48 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

angry.'' Then she started the war of taunting 
words with which chiefs usually began a con- 
flict. She called to him giving him all the 
characteristics of a hog. He was angry and 
boasted of his power to overcome and destroy 
the whole Pele family. Pele thought she could 
easily frighten him and drive him off, so she sent 
clouds of sulphur-smoke and a stream of boiling 
lava against him. To her surprise he brushed 
the clouds away, with a few words checked the 
eruption, and stood before them unharmed. 

The sisters begged Pele to send for the hand- 
some stranger and make him a member of their 
family. At last she sent her brother Kane-hoa- 
lani to speak to him. There were many hin- 
drances before a thorough reconciliation took 
place. 

For a time Pele and Kama-puaa lived together 
as husband and wife, in various parts of the 
district of Puna. — The places where they dwelt 
are pointed out even at this day by the natives 
who know the traditions. — It is said that a 
son was born and nam.ed Opelu-haa-lii and that 
the fiery life of his mother was so strenuous 
that he lived only a little while. Some say he 
became the fish ''Opelu." 

This marriage did not endure. Kama-puaa 
had too many of the habits and instincts of a 
hog to please Pele, and she was too quickly 



PELE AND KAMA-PUAA 49 

angry to suit the overbearing Kama-puaa. 
Pele was never patient even with her sisters, so 
with Kama-puaa she would burst into fiery 
rage, while taunts and bitter words were freely 
hurled back and forth. 

A sarcastic chant has been handed down 
among the Hawaiians as one of the taunts 
hurled at Pele by Kama-puaa. 

*'Makole, Makole, akahi 
Hele i kai o Pikeha 
Heaha ke ai e aiai 
He lihilihi pau a ke akua." 

"Oh, look at that one with the sore eyes! 
Tell her to go to the sea of Pikeha. 

(To wash her eyes and cure them.) 
What food makes her fair as the moonlight? 
Even her eyebrows were shaved off by some god.'* 

Pele was bitterly angry and tried her best to 
destroy her tormentor. She stamped on the 
ground, the earth shook, cracks opened in the 
surface and sometimes clouds of smoke and 
steam arose around Kama-puaa. He was un- 
terrified and matched his divine powers against 
hers. It was demi-god against demi-goddess. 
It was the goddess-of-fire of Hawaii against the 
hog-god of Oahu. Pele's home life was given 
up, the bitterness of strife swept over the black 
sands of the seashore. 

When the earth seemed ready to open its 



50 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

doors and pour out mighty streams of flowing 
lava in the defence of Pele, Kama-puaa called 
for the waters of the ocean to rise up. Then 
flood met fire and quenched it. Pele was driven 
inland. Her former lover, hastening after her 
and striving to overcome her, followed her 
upward until at last amid clouds of poisonous 
gases she went back into her spirit home in the 
pit of Kilauea. 

Then Kama-puaa as a god of the sea 
gathered the waters together in great masses 
and hurled them into the fire-pit. Violent ex- 
plosions followed the inrush of waters. The 
sides of the great crater were torn to pieces 
by fierce earthquakes. Masses of fire expanded 
the water into steam, and Pele gathered the 
forces of the underworld to aid in driving back 
Kama-puaa. The lavas rose in many lakes and 
fountains. Rapidly the surface was cooled and 
the fountains checked by the water thrown 
in by Kama-puaa, but just as rapidly were 
new openings made and new streams of fire 
hurled at the demi-god of Oahu. It was a 
mighty battle of the elements. 

The legends say that the hog-man, Kama- 
puaa, poured water into the crater until its 
fires were driven back to their lowest depths 
and Pele was almost drowned by the floods. 
The clouds of the skies dropped their burden 



PELE AND KAMA-PUAA 51 

of rain. All the waters of the sea that Kama- 
puaa could collect were poured into the crater. 

Pele sent Lono-makua, who had charge over 
the earth-fires. He kindled eruptions manifold, 
but they were overwhelmed by the vast volumes 
of water hurled against them by Kama-puaa. 

Kama-puaa raised his voice in the great 
ancient chant: 

"O gods in the skies! 
Let the rain come, let it fall. 
Let Paoa [Pele's spade] be broken. 
Let the rain be separated from the sun. 
O clouds in the skies! 
O great clouds of Iku! black as smoke! 
Let the heavens fall on the earth, 
Let the heavens roll open for the rain, 
Let the storm come." 

The storm fell in torrents from black clouds 
gathered right over the pit. The water filled 
the crater, according to the Hawaiian, ku-ma- 
waho, i,e,, rising until it overflowed the walls of 
the crater. The fires were imprisoned and 
drowned — the home of Pele seemed to be de- 
stroyed. There remained, however, a small 
spark of fire hidden in the breast of Lono-makua. 

Pele prayed for: 

"The bright gods of the underworld. 
Shining in Wawao (Vavau) are the gods of the night. 
The gods thick clustered for Pele." 



52 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

Kama-puaa thought he had destroyed Pele's 
resources, but just as his wonderful storms had 
put forth their greatest efforts, Lono-makua 
kindled the flames of fierce eruptions once 
more. The gods of the underworld lent their 
aid to the Pele family. The new attack was 
more than Kama-puaa could endure. The 
lua-pele (pit of Pele) was full of earth-fire. 
Streams of lava poured out against Kama-puaa. 

He changed his body into a kind of grass now 
known as Ku-kae-puaa, filling a large field with 
it. When the grass lay in the pathway of the 
fire, the lava was turned aside for a time; but 
Pele, inspired by the beginning of victory, called 
anew upon the gods of the underworld for strong 
reinforcements. 

Out from the pits of Kilauea came vast masses 
of lava piling up against the field of grass in its 
pathway, and soon the grass began to burn; 
then Kama-puaa assumed the shape of a man, 
the hair or bristles on his body were singed and 
the smart of many burns began to cause agony. — 
Apparently the grass represented the bristles 
on the front of his hog-body which were scorched 
and burned. The legends say that since this time 
hogs have had very little hair on the stomach. 

Down he rushed to the sea, but the 
lava spread out on either side cutting off retreat 
along the beach. Pele followed close behind, 




ASA-YAMA, JAPAN 



PELE AND KAMA-PUAA 53 

striving to overtake him before he could reach 
the water. The side streams had poured into 
the sea and the water was rapidly heated into 
tossing, boiling waves. Pele threw great masses 
of lava at Kama-puaa, striking and churning the 
sea into which he leaped midst the swirling 
heated mass. Kama-puaa gave up the battle, 
and, thoroughly defeated, changed himself into 
a fish. To that fish he gave the tough skin 
which he assumed when roaming over the islands 
as a hog. It was thick enough to withstand 
the boiling waves through which he swam out 
into the deep sea. The Hawaiians say that 
this fish has always been able to make a noise 
like the grunting of a small hog, so it was given 
the name Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-a-puaa. 

It was said that Kama-puaa fled to foreign 
lands, where he married a high chiefess and 
lived with his family many years. 

Sometime during this adventure of Kama- 
puaa in the domains of Pele, the islands were 
divided between the two demi-gods, and an 
oath of divine solemnity was taken by them. 
They set apart a large portion of the island of 
Hawaii for Pele, and the eastern shore from 
Hilo to Kohala and all the islands northwest 
of Hawaii as the kingdom over which Kama- 
puaa might establish rulers. It is said that the 
oath has never been broken. 



54 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

One of the long legends describes a new island 
home brought up from ocean depths by Kama- 
puaa, in which he established his family and 
from which he visited Hawaii. It says that 
Pele saw him and called to him: 

"O Kama-puaa divine, 
My love is for you. 

Return, we shall have the land together, 
You the upland — I the lowland. 
Return, O my husband, 
Our difficulties are at an end." 

He refused, saying that it was best for them to 
abide by their oath, and not take any part of 
what belonged to the other. Perhaps this 
desire for reconciliation underlies the legendary 
love of Pele for sacrifices of those things which 
would most intimately connect her with Kama- 
puaa. 

Kama-puaa has figured to the last days of 
Pele worship in the sacrifices ofl^ered to the fire- 
goddess. The most acceptable sacrifice to Pele 
was supposed to be puaa (a hog). If a hog could 
not be secured when an offering was necessary, 
the priest would take the fish humu-humu-nuku- 
nuku-a-puaa and throw it into the pit of fire. 
If the hog and the fish both failed, the priest 
would offer any of the things into which it was 
said in their traditions that Kama-puaa could 
change himself. 



PELE AND THE SNOW-GODDESS $$ 




IX 

PELE AND THE SNOW-GODDESS 

HERE were four maidens with white 
mantles in the mythology of the Hawai- 
ians. They were all queens of beauty, 
full of wit and wisdom, lovers of advent- 
ure, and enemies of Pele. They were the god- 
desses of the snow-covered mountains. They 
embodied the mythical ideas of spirits carrying 
on eternal warfare between heat and cold, fire 
and frost, burning lava and stony ice. They 
ruled the mountains north of Kilauea and dwelt 
in the cloud-capped summits. They clothed 
themselves against the bitter cold with snow- 
mantles. They all had the power of laying 
aside the white garment and taking in its place 
clothes made from the golden sunshine. Their 
stories are nature-myths derived from the power 
of snow and cold to check volcanic action and 
sometimes clothe the mountain tops and upper 
slopes with white, which melted as the maidens 
came down closer to the sea through lands made 
fertile by flowing streams and blessed sunshine. 
It is easy to see how the story arose of Pele 
and Poliahu, the snow-goddess of Mauna Kea, 



S6 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

but it is not easy to understand the diflferent 
forms which the legend takes while the legends 
concerning the other three maidens of the white 
mantle are very obscure indeed. 

Lilinoe was sometimes known as the goddess 
of the mountain Haleakala. In her hands lay 
the power to hold in check the eruptions which 
might break forth through the old cinder cones 
in the floor of the great crater. She was the 
goddess of dead fires and desolation. She some- 
times clothed the long summit of the mountain 
with a glorious garment of snow several miles in 
length. Some legends give her a place as the 
wife of the great-flood survivor, Nana-Nuu, re- 
corded by Fornander as having a cave-dwelling 
on the slope of Mauna Kea. Therefore she is 
also known as one of the goddesses of Mauna 
Kea. 

Waiau was another snow-maiden of Mauna 
Kea, whose record in the legends has been almost 
entirely forgotten. There is a beautiful lake 
glistening in one of the crater-cones on the sum- 
mit of the mountain. This was sometimes called 
*^The Bottomless Lake,'' and was supposed to go 
down deep into the heart of the mountain. It 
is really forty feet in its greatest depth — deep 
enough for the bath of the goddess. The name 
Wai-au means water of sufficient depth to bathe. 
Somewhere, buried in the memory of some old 



PELE AND THE SNOW-GODDESS 57 

Hawaiian, is a legend worth exhuming, probably 
connecting Waiau, the maiden, with Waiau, the 
lake. 

Kahoupokane was possibly the goddess of the 
mountain Hualalai, controlling the snows which 
after long intervals fall on its desolate summits. 
At present but little more than the name is known 
about this maiden of the snow-garment. 

Poliahu, the best-known among the maidens of 
the mountains, loved the eastern cliffs of the 
great island Hawaii, — the precipices which rise 
from the raging surf which beats against the coast 
known now as the Hamakua district. Here she 
sported among mortals, meeting the chiefs in 
their many and curious games of chance and skill. 
Sometimes she wore a mantle of pure white kapa 
and rested on the ledge of rock overhanging the 
torrents of water which in various places fell into 
the sea. 

There is a legend of Kauai woven into the 
fairy-tale of the maiden of the mist — Laieikawai 
— and in this story Poliahu for a short time visits 
Kauai as the bride of one of the high chiefs who 
bore the name Aiwohikupua. The story of the 
betrothal and marriage suggests the cold of the 
snow-mantle and shows the inconstancy of human 
hearts. 

Aiwohikupua, passing near the cliffs of Hama- 
kua, saw a beautiful woman resting on the rocks 



58 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

above the sea. She beckoned v/ith most grace- 
ful gestures for him to approach the beach. Her 
white mantle lay on the rocks beside her. He 
landed and proposed m.arriage, but she made a 
betrothal with him by the exchange of the cloaks 
which they were wearing. Aiwohikupua went 
away to Kauai, but he soon returned clad in the 
white cloak and wearing a beautiful helmet of 
red feathers. A large retinue of canoes attended 
him, filled with musicians and singers and his 
intimate companions. The three mountains be- 
longing to the snow-goddesses were clothed with 
snow almost down to the seashore. 

Poliahu and the three other maidens of the 
white robe came down to meet the guests from 
Kauai. Cold winds swayed their garments as 
they drew near to the sea. The blood of the 
people of Kauai chilled in their veins. Then the 
maidens threw off their white mantles and called 
for the sunshine. The snow went back to the 
mountain tops, and the maidens, in the beauty 
of their golden sun-garments, gave hearty greet- 
ing to their friends. After the days of the 
marriage festival Poliahu and her chief w^ent to 
Kauai. 

A queen of the island Maui had also a prom- 
ise given by Aiwohikupua. In her anger she 
hastened to Kauai and in the midst of the 
Kauai festivities revealed herself and charged the 



PELE AND THE SNOW-GODDESS 59 

chief with his perfidy. PoHahu turned against 
her husband and forsook him. 

The chief's friends made reconcihation be- 
tween the Maui chiefess and Aiwohikupua, but 
when the day of marriage came the chiefess 
found herself surrounded by an invisible atmos- 
phere of awful cold. This grew more and more 
intense as she sought aid from the chief. 

At last he called to her: "This cold is the 
snow mantle of Poliahu. Flee to the place of 
fire!" But down by the fire the sun-mantle be- 
longing to Poliahu was thrown around her and 
she cried out, "He wela e, he wela!'' ("The 
heat! Oh, the heat!") Then the chief an- 
swered, "This heat is the anger of Poliahu." 
So the Maui chiefess hastened away from Kauai 
to her own home. 

Then Poliahu and her friends of the white 
mantle threw their cold-wave over the chief and 
his friends and, while they shivered and were 
chilled almost to the verge of death, appeared 
before all the people standing in their shining 
robes of snow, glittering in the glory of the sun; 
then, casting once more their cold breath upon 
the multitude, disappeared forever from Kauai, 
returning to their own home on the great moun- 
tains of the southern islands. 

It may have been before or after this strange 
legendary courtship that the snow-maiden met 



6o LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

Pele, the maiden of volcanic fires. Pele loved 
the holua-coasting — the race of sleds, long and 
narrow, down sloping, grassy hillsides. She usu- 
ally appeared as a woman of wonderfully beau- 
tiful countenance and form — a stranger unknown 
to any of the different companies entering into 
the sport. The chiefs of the different districts 
of the various islands had their favorite meeting- 
places for any sport in which they desired to 
engage. 

There were sheltered places where gam- 
bling reigned, or open glades where boxing and 
spear-throwing could best be practised, or 
coasts where the splendid surf made riding the 
waves on surf -boards a scene of intoxicating de- 
light. There were hillsides where sled-riders 
had opportunity for the exercise of every atom 
of skill and strength. 

Poliahu and her friends had come down Mauna 
Kea to a sloping hillside south of Hamakua. 
Suddenly in their midst appeared a stranger of 
surpassing beauty. Poliahu welcomed her and 
the races were continued. Some of the legend- 
tellers think that Pele was angered by the superi- 
ority, real or fancied, of Poliahu. The ground 
began to grow warm and Poliahu knew her enemy. 

Pele threw off all disguise and called for the 
forces of fire to burst open the doors of the sub- 
terranean caverns of Mauna Kea. Up toward 



m 




ICE-CRESTED CHIMBORAZO, ECUADOR, S.A. 
(20,4q8 feet high) 



PELE AND THE SNOW-GODDESS 6 1 

the mountain she marshalled her fire-fountains. 
PoKahu fled toward the summit. The snow- 
mantle was seized by the outbursting lava and 
began to burn up. Poliahu grasped the robe, 
dragging it away and carrying it with her. Soon 
she regained strength and threw the mantle over 
the mountain. 

There were earthquakes upon earthquakes, 
shaking the great island from sea to sea. The 
mountains trembled while the tossing waves of 
the conflict between fire and snow passed through 
and over them. Great rock precipices staggered 
and fell down the sides of the mountains. Clouds 
gathered over the mountain summit at the call 
of the snow-goddess. Each cloud was gray with 
frozen moisture and the snows fell deep and fast 
on the mountain. Farther and farther down 
the sides the snow-mantle unfolded until it 
dropped on the very fountains of fire. The lava 
chilled and hardened and choked the flowing, 
burning rivers. 

Pele's servants became her enemies. The 
lava, becoming stone, filled up the holes out of 
which the red melted mass was trying to force 
itself. Checked and chilled, the lava streams 
were beaten back into the depths of Mauna Loa 
and Kilauea. The fire-rivers, already rushing 
to the sea, were narrowed and driven downward 
so rapidly that they leaped out from the land, 



62 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

becoming immediately the prey of the remorse- 
less ocean. 

Thus the ragged mass of Laupahoe-hoe was 
formed, and the great ledge of the arch of 
Onomea, and the different sharp and torn lavas 
in the edge of the sea which mark the various 
eruptions of centuries past. 

Poliahu in legendary battles has met Pele many 
times. She has kept the upper part of the moun- 
tain desolate under her mantle of snow and ice, 
but down toward the sea most fertile and luxu- 
riant valleys and hillside slopes attest the gifts of 
the goddess to the beauty of the island and the 
welfare of men. 

Out of Mauna Loa, Pele has stepped forth 
again and again, and has hurled eruptions of 
mighty force and great extent against the maiden 
of the snow-mantle, but the natives say that in 
this battle Pele has been and always will be de- 
feated. Pele's kingdom has been limited to the 
southern half of the island Hawaii, while the 
snow-maidens rule the territory to the north. 




^GENEALOGY OF THE PELE FAMILY 63 



X 

GENEALOGY OF THE PELE FAMILY 




HERE were gods, goddesses, and ghost- 
gods in the Pele family. Almost all 
had their home in volcanic fires and 
were connected with all the various 
natural fire phenomena such as earthquakes, 
eruptions, smoke clouds, thunder, and lightning. 
Pele was the supreme ruler of the household. 
She had a number of brothers and sisters. 
There were also m-any au-makuas, or ancestor 
ghost-gods, who were supposed to have been 
sent into the family by incantations and sacri- 
fices. Sometimes when death came among the 
Hawaiians, a part of the body of the dead person 
would be thrown into the living volcano, Kilauea, 
with all ceremony. It was supposed that the 
spirit also went into the flame, finding there its 
permanent dwelling-place. This spirit became a 
Pele-au-makua. 

Pele's brother, Ka-moho-alii, and her older 
sister, Na-maka-o-ka-hai, however, belonged to 
the powers of the sea. Ka-moho-alii, whose 
name was sometimes given as Ka-moo-alii, was 
king of the sharks. He was a favorite of the 



64 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

fire-goddess Pele. Na-maka-o-ka-hai, a sea- 
goddess, as a result of family trouble, became 
Pele's most bitter enemy, fighting her with 
floods of water, according to the legends. 

Thus the original household represented the 
two eternal enemies, fire and water. One set of 
legends says that Kane-hoa-lani was the father 
and Hina-alii was the mother. Kane was one 
of the four great gods of Polynesia, — Ku, Kane, 
Lono, and Kanaloa. 

Kane-hoa-lani might be interpreted as "Kane, 
the divine companion or friend." A better 
rendering is "Kane, the divine fire-maker." 
In most of the legends and genealogies he is 
given a place among Pele's brothers. 

There were many Hinas. The great Hina 
was a goddess whose stories frequently placed 
her in close relation to the moon. 

— It seems far-fetched to give Hina a place in 
the Pele family. The name was evidently 
brought to the Hawaiian Islands from the South 
Seas and in process of time was grafted into the 
Pele myth. — 

Another set of legends published in the earliest 
newspapers, printed in the Hawaiian language, 
say that Ku-waha-ilo and Haumea were the 
parents. Ku was the fiercest and most power- 
ful of the four chief gods. Haumea had another 
name. Papa. She was the earth. This parent- 



GENEALOGY OF THE PELE FAMILY 65 

age was carried out in the most diverse as well as 
the most ancient of the legends and seems 
to be worthy of acceptance. Ku-waha-ilo is 
in some legends called Ku-aha-ilo. In both 
cases the name means '^Ku with the wormy 
mouth/' or ^^Ku, the man-eater" (The cannibal), 
whose act made him ferocious and inhuman in 
the eyes of the Hawaiians. 

Pele has long been the fire-goddess of the 
Hawaiians. Her home was in the great fire-pit 
of the volcano of Kilauea on the island of Hawaii, 
and all the eruptions of lava have borne her 
name wherever they may have appeared. Thus 
the word ''Pele" has been used with three dis- 
tinct definitions by the old Hawaiians. Pele, the 
fire-goddess; Pele, a volcano or a fire-pit in any 
land; and Pele, an eruption of lava. 

King Kalakaua was very much interested in 
explaining the origin of some of the great Ha- 
waiian myths and legends. He did not make 
any statement about the parents of the legendary 
family, but said that the Pele family was driven 
from Samoa in the eleventh century, finding a 
home in the southwestern part of the island 
Hawaii near the volcano Kilauea. There they 
lived until an eruption surrounded and over- 
whelmed them in living fire. After a time the 
native imagination, which always credited 
ghost-gods, placed this family among the most 



66 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

powerful au-makuas and gave them a home in 
the heart of the crater. From this beginning, 
he thought, grew the stories of the Pele family. 

The trouble with Kalakaua's version is that 
it does not take into account the relation of Pele 
to various parts of Polynesia. 

The early inhabitants of the region around 
Hilo in the southwestern part of the island 
Hawaii, near Kilauea, brought many names 
and legends from far-away Polynesian lands to 
Hawaii. Hilo (formerly called Hiro), meaning to 
'^ twist'' or "turn," was derived from Whiro, a 
great Polynesian traveller and sea-robber. The 
stories of Maui and Puna came from other lands, 
so also came some of the myths of Pele. 

Fornander, in "The Polynesian Race,'' says: 
"In Hawaiian, Pele is the fire-goddess who dwells 
in volcanoes. In Samoan, Fee is a personage 
with nearly similar functions. In Tahitian, 
Pere is a volcano." 

These varieties of the name Pele, Fornander 
carries back also to the pre-Malay dialects of 
the Indian Archipelago, where pelah means 
"hot," belem to "burn." Then he goes back 
still farther to the Celtic Bel or Belen (the sun 
god), the Spartan Bela (the sun), and the Baby- 
lonian god Bel. It might be worth while for 
some student of the Atlantic Coast or Europe to 
find the derivation of the name Pele as applied 



GENEALOGY OF THE PELE FAMILY 67 

to the explosive volcano of Martinique, and 
note its apparent connection with the Pacific 
languages. 

In Raratonga is found a legend which ap- 
proaches the Hawaiian stories more nearly than 
any other from foreign sources. There the 
great goddess of fire was named Mahuike, who 
was known throughout Polynesia as the divine 
guardian of fire. It was from her that Maui 
the demi-god was represented by many legends 
as procuring fire for mankind. Her daughter, 
also a fire-goddess, was Pere, a name identical 
with the Hawaiian Pele, the letters / and r 
being interchangeable. This Pere became angry 
and blew off the top of the island Fakarava. 
Earthquakes and explosions terrified the people. 
Mahuike tried to make Pere quiet down, and 
finally drove her away. Pere leaped into the 
sea and fled to Va-ihi (Hawaii). 

A somewhat similar story comes in from 
Samoa. Mahuike, the god of fire in Samoa, 
drove his daughter away. This daughter passed 
under the ocean from Samoa to Nuuhiwa. 
After estabhshing a volcano there, the spirit of 
unrest came upon her and she again passed under 
the sea to the Hawaiian Islands, where she 
determined to stay forever. 

In Samoa one of the fire-gods, according to 
some authorities, was Fe-e, a name almost the 



68 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

same as Pele, yet nearly all the Samoan legends 
describe Fe-e as a cuttlefish possessing divine 
power, and at enmity with fire. 

Hon. S. Percy Smith, who was for a long time 
Minister of Native Aflairs in New Zealand and 
now is President of the Polynesian Society for 
Legendary and Historical Research, writes that 
the full name for Pele among the New Zealand 
Maoris is ^^Para-whenua-mea, which through 
well-known letter changes is identical with the 
full Hawaiian name Pele-honua-mea." 

From several continued Pele stories in news- 
papers in the native language, about 1865, the 
following sketch of the Pele family is compiled: 

The god Ku, under the nam.e Ku-waha-ilo, 
was the father. Haumea was the mother. Her 
father was a man-eater. Her mother was a 
precipice (i,e., belonged to the earth). Others 
say Ku-waha-ilo had neither father nor mother, 
but dwelt in the far-off heavens. (This prob- 
ably meant that he lived beyond the most dis- 
tant boundary of the horizon.) 

Two daughters were born. The first, Na- 
maka-o-ka-hai, was born from the breasts of 
Haumea. Pele was born from the thighs. 

After this the brothers and sisters were given 
life by Haumea. Ka-moho-alii, the shark-god, 
was born from the top of the head. He was 
the elder brother, the caretaker of the family, 



GENEALOGY OF THE PELE FAMILY 69 

always self-denying and ready to answer any 
call from his relatives. Kane-hekili, Kane who 
had the thunder, was born from the mouth. 
Kauwila-nui, who ruled the lightning, came from 
the flashing eyes of Haumea. Thus the family 
came from the arms, from the wrists, the palms 
of the hands, the fingers, the various joints, 
and even from the toes. A modern reader 
would think that Haumea as Mother Earth 
threw out her children in the natural outburst 
of earth forces, but it is extremely doubtful if 
the old Hawaiians had any such idea. Yet the 
expression that Haumea was a precipice might 
imply a misty feeling in that direction. 

The youngest of the family, Hiiaka-in-the- 
bosom-of-Pele, was born an egg. After she had 
been carefully warmed and nourished by Pele, 
she became a beautiful child. When she grew 
into womanhood she was the bravest, the most 
powerful, except Pele, and the most gentle and 
lovable of all the sisters. 

The names of the members of the household 
of fire are worth noting as revealing the Hawaiian 
recognition of the different forces of nature. 
Some said there were forty sisters. One list 
gives only four. They were almost all called 
^'The Hiiakas.'' Ellis in 1823 said the name 
meant ^^ cloud holder.'' Fornander says it means 
^^ twilight bearer.'' Hii conveys the idea of 



70 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

lifting on the hip and arm so as to make carrying 
easy. Aka means usually '^shadow," and pict- 
ures the long shadows of the clouds across the 
sky as evening comes. There is really no twi- 
light worth mentioning in the Hawaiian Islands 
and Hiiaka would be better interpreted as 
^^ lifting sunset shadows," or holding up the 
smoke clouds while their shadows fall over the 
fires of the crater, conveying the idea of fire- 
light shining up under smoke clouds as they 
rise from the lake of fire. 

The Hiiakas were '^shadow bearers." There 
were eight well-known sisters: 

Hiiaka - kapu - ena - ena (Hiiaka-of-the-burning-tabu), 
known also as Hiiaka-pua-ena-ena (Hiiaka-of-the-burning- 
flower) and also as Hiiaka-pu-ena-ena (Hiiaka-of-the- 
burning-hills). 

Hiiaka-wawahi-lani (Hiiaka-breaking-the-heavens-for- 
the-heavy-rain-to-f all) . 

Hiiaka-noho-lani (Hiiaka-dwelling-in-the-skies) . 

Hiiaka-makole- wawahi- waa (Hiiak a- the-fire-eyed-canoe- 
breaker) . 

Hiiaka-kaa-lawa-maka (Hiiaka - with - quick - glancing- 
eyes). 

Hiiaka-ka-lei-ia (Hiiaka-encircled-by-garlands-of-smoke- 
clouds). 

Hiiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele (Hiiaka-in-the-bosom-of-Pele) , 
who was known also as the young Hiiaka. 

Some of the legends say that Kapo was one 
of Pele's sisters. Kapo was a vile, murderous 



r7-^i^^-».tr«"-5^'^'j=3rvVvivV-?>-v<-v^', -j^ *x-w^^^^^l^p^^p^^P 




MT. SHASTA, CALIFORNIA 
(14,162 feet high) 



GENEALOGY OF THE PELE FAMILY 71 

poison-goddess connected with the idea of ^ Spray- 
ing to death/'* and in the better legends is dropped 
out of the Pele family. There were eleven well- 
known brothers: 

Ka-moho-alii (The-dragon-or-shark-king) . 

Kane-hekili (Kane- the- thunderer) . 

Kane-pohaku-kaa (Kane-rolling-stones, or The-earth- 
quake-maker) . 

Kane-hoa-lani (Kane-the-divine-fire-maker) . 

Kane-huli-honua (Kane-turning-the-earth-upside-down- 
in-eruptions-and-earthquakes) . 

Kane-kauwila-nui (Kane-who-ruled-the-great-lightning) . 

Kane-huli-koa (Kane-who-broke-coral-reef s) . 

Ka-poha-i-kahi ola (Explosion-in-the-place-of-life, i.e., 
fountains of bursting gas in the living fire). 

Ke-ua-a-ke-po (The-rain-in-the-night, or The-rain-of- 
fire-more-visible-at-night) . 

Ke-o-ahi-kama-kaua (The-fire-thrusting-child-of-war) . 

Lono-makua (Lono- the-f ather-who-had-charge-of - the- 
crater-and-its-fire) . 

The Thunderer and the Child-of-War were 
said to be hunchbacks. According to the dif- 
ferent legends Pele had four husbands, each of 
whom lived with her for a time. Two of these 
were with her in the ancient homes of the Ha- 
waiians, Kuai-he-lani f and Hapakuela. These 
husbands were Aukele-nui-a-iku and Wahieloa. 
Two husbands came to her while she dwelt in 
Kilauea, her palace of fire in the Hawaiian 
Islands. One was the rough Kama-puaa, the 
other was Lohiau, the handsome king of Kauai. 

* Pule anana. t See "Home of the Ancestors," Part 11., 

Legends of Ghosts and Ghost- Gods. 



72 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

XI 
PELE'S LONG SLEEP 




g^^j ELE and her family dwelt in the beauty 

glJI of Puna. On a certain day there was 
a fine, clear atmosphere and Pele saw 
the splendid surf with its white crests 
and proposed to her sisters to go down for bath- 
ing and surf-riding. 

Pele, as the high chiefess of the family, first 
entered the water and swam far out, then re- 
turned, standing on the brink of the curling 
wave, for the very crest was her surf-board 
which she rode with great skill. Sometimes 
her brother, Kamohoalii, the great shark-god, in 
the form of a shark would be her surf-board. 
Again and again she went out to the deep pit 
of the weaves, her sisters causing the country 
inland to resound with their acclamation, for 
she rode as one born of the sea. 

At last she came to the beach and, telling the 
sisters that the tabu on swimming was lifted, 
and they could enter upon their sport, went in- 
land with her youngest sister, Hiiaka, to watch 
while she slept. They went to a house thatched 
with ti* leaves, a house built for the goddess. 

*Cordyline terminalis. 



PELE'S LONG SLEEP 73 

There Pele lay down, saying to her sister 
Hiiaka: 

^^I will sleep, giving up to the shadows of the 
falling evening — dropping into the very depths of 
slumber. Very hard will be this sleep. I am 
jealous of it. Therefore it is tabu. - This is my 
command to you, O my little one. Wait you 
without arousing me nine days and eight nights. 
Then call me and chant the ^Hulihia''' (a chant 
supposed to bring life back and revive the 
body). 

Then Pele added: ^^ Perhaps this sleep will 
be my journey to meet a man — our husband. If 
I shall meet my lover in my dreams the sleep 
will be of great value. I will sleep.'' 

Hiiaka moved softly about the head of her 
sister Pele, swaying a kahili fringed and beautiful. 
The perfume of the hala,* the fragrance of Keaau, 
clung to the walls of the house. From that time 
Puna has been famous as the land fragrant with 
perfume of the leaves and flowers of the hala 
tree. 

Whenever Pele slept she lost the appearance 
which she usually assumed, of a beautiful and 
glorious young woman, surpassing all the other 
women in the islands. Sleep brought out the 
aged hag that she really was. Always when 
any worshipper saw the group of sisters and 

* Same as Lahala or Puhala, Pandanus adoratissimus. 



74 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

Pele asleep in their midst they saw a weary 
old woman lying in the fire-bed in the great 
crater. 

While Pele was sleeping her spirit heard the 
sound of a hula-drum skilfully played, accom- 
panied by a chant sung by a wonderful voice. 
The spirit of Pele arose from her body and listened 
to that voice. She thought it was the hula* of 
Laka, who was the goddess of the dance. Then 
she clearly heard male voices, strong and tender, 
and a great joy awoke within her, and she listened 
toward the east, but the hula was not there. 
Then westward, and there were the rich tones 
of the beaten drum and the chant. Pele's 
spirit cried: '^The voice of love comes on the 
wind. I will go and meet it.'' 

Pele then forsook Keaau and went to Hilo, 
but the drum was not there. She passed from 
place to place, led by the call of the drum and 
dance, following it along the palis (precipices) 
and over the deep ravines, through forest shadows 
and along rocky beaches until she came to the 
upper end of Hawaii. There she heard the call 
coming across the sea from the island Maui. 
Her spirit crossed the channel and Hstened again. 
The voices of the dance were louder and clearer 
and more beautiful. 

She passed on from island to island until she 
came to Kauai, and there the drum-beat and the 

* See Appendix, "Hula." 



PELE'S LONG SLEEP 75 

song of the dance did not die away or change, so 
she knew she had found the lover desired in her 
dream. 

Pele's spirit now put on the body of strong, 
healthful youth. Nor was there any blemish 
in her beauty and symmetry from head to foot. 
She was anointed with all the fragrant oils of 
Puna. Her dress was the splendid garland of 
the red lehua flower and maile* leaf and the fern 
from the dwelling-places of the gods. The ten- 
der vines of the deep woods veiled this queen of 
the crater. In glorious young womanhood she 
went to the halau. The dark body of a great 
mist enveloped her. 

The drum and the voice had led her to Haena, 
Kauai, to the house of Lohiau, the high-born 
chief of that island. The house for dancing was 
long and was beautifully draped with mats of 
all kinds. It was full of chiefs engaged in the 
sports of that time. The common people were 
gathered outside the house of the chief. 

The multitude saw a glorious young woman 
step out of the mist. Then they raised a great 
shout, praising her with strong voices. It seemed 
as if the queen of sunrise had summoned the 
beauty of the morning to rest upon her. The 
countenance of Pele was like the clearest and 
gentlest moonlight. The people made a vacant 

*Alyxia olivoeformis. 



76 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

space for the passage of this wonderful stranger, 
casting themselves on the ground before her. 
An ancient chant says: 

''O the passing of that beautiful woman. 
Silent are the voices on the plain. 
No medley of the birds is in the forest; 
^ There is quiet, resting in peace." 

Pele entered the long house, passed by the 
place of the drums, and seated herself on a rest- 
ing-place of soft royal mats. 

The chiefs were astonished, and after a long 
time asked her if she came from the far-off sunrise 
of foreign lands. 

Pele replied, smiling, "Ka! I belong to 
Kauai." 

Lohiau, the high chief, said: ^^0 stranger, child 
of a journey, you speak in riddles. I know Kauai 
from harbor to clustered hills, and my eyes have 
never seen any woman like you." 

'^ Ka! " said Pele, '^ the place where you did not 
stop, there I was." 

But Lohiau refused her thought, and asked her 
to tell truly whence she had come. At last Pele 
acknowledged that she had come from Puna, 
Hawaii, — "the place beloved by the sunrise at 
Haehae." 

The chiefs urged her to join them in a feast, 
but she refused, saying she had recently eaten 



PELE'S LONG SLEEP 77 

and was satisfied, but she ^^was hungry for the 
hula — the voices and the drum/' 

Then Lohiau told her that her welcome was all 
that he could give. "" For me is the island, inland, 
seaward, and all around Kauai. This is your 
place. The home you have in Puna you will 
think you see again in Kauai. The name of my 
house for you is Ha-laau-ola [Tree of Life].'' 

Pele replied: ^^The name of your house is 
beautiful. My home in Puna is MauH-ola [Long 
Life]. I will accept this house of yours." 

Lohiau watched her while he partook of the 
feast with his chiefs, and she was resting on the 
couch of mats. He was thinking of her marvel- 
lous, restful beauty, as given in the ancient chant 
known as ^^Lei Mauna Loa." 

"Lei of Mauna Loa, beautiful to look upon. 
The mountain honored by the winds. 
Known by the peaceful motion. 
Calm becomes the whirlwind. 
Beautiful is the sun upon the plain. 
Dark-leaved the trees in the midst of the hot sun. 
Heat rising from the face of the moist lava. 
The sunrise mist lying on the grass, 
Free from the care of the strong wind. 
The bird returns to rest at Palaau. 
He who owns the right to sleep is at Palaau. 
I am alive for your love — 
For you indeed." 



78 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

Then Lohiau proposed to his chiefs that he 
should take this beautiful chiefess from Kauai as 
his queen, and his thought seemed good to all. 
Turning to Pele, he offered himself as her hus- 
band and was accepted. 

Then Lohiau arose and ordered the sports to 
cease while they all slept. Pele and Lohiau were 
married and dwelt together several days, accord- 
ing to the custom of the ancient time. 

After this time had passed Lohiau planned 
another great feast and a day for the hula-dance 
and the many sports of the people. When they 
came together, beautiful were the dances and 
sweet the voices of Lohiau and his aikane (closest 
friend). 

Three of the women of Kauai who were known 
as ^^the guardians of Haena'^ had come into 
the halau and taken their places near Lohiau. 
The people greeted their coming with great ap- 
plause, for they were very beautiful and were 
also possessed of supernatural power. Their 
beauty was like that of Pele save for the paleness 
of their skins, which had come from their power 
to appear in different forms, according to their 
pleasure. They were female mo-o, or dragons. 
Their human beauty was enhanced by their gar- 
ments of ferns and leaves and flowers. 

Pele had told Lohiau of their coming and had 
charged him in these words: ^^ Remember, you 



J* 
o 

H 
W 

w 

O 
> 

< 




PELE'S LONG SLEEP 79 

have been set apart for me. Remember, and 
know our companionship. Therefore I place 
upon you my law, ^Kekai okia^ [Cut off by the 
sea] are you — separated from all for me.'' 

Lohiau looked on these beautiful women. The 
chief of the women, Kilinoe, was the most inter- 
esting. She refused to eat while others partook 
of a feast before the dancing should begin, and 
sat watching carefully with large, bright, shining 
eyes the face of Lohiau, using magic power to 
make him pay attention to her charms. Pele 
did not wish these women to know her, so placed 
a shadow between them and her so that they 
looked upon her as through a mist. 

— Some legends say that Pele danced the Hula 
of the Winds of Kauai, calling their names until 
strong winds blew and storms of rain beat upon 
the house in which the chiefs were assembled, 
driving the common people to their homes. — 

There the chiefs took their hula-drums and sat 
down preparing to play for the dancers. Then 
up rose Kilinoe, and, taking ferns and flowers 
from her skirts, made fragrant wreaths where- 
with to crown Lohiau and his fellow hula-drum- 
mers, expecting the chief to see her beauty and 
take her for his companion. But the law of 
Pele was upon him and he called to her for a chant 
before the dance should commence. 

Pele threw aside her shadow garments and 



8o LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

came out clothed in her beautiful pa-u (skirt) 
and fragrant with the perfumes of Puna. She 
said, ^^It is not for me to give an oHoli mele [a 
chant] for your native dance, but I will call the 
guardian winds of your islands Niihau and Kauai, 
O Lohiau! and they will answer my call.'' 

Then she called for the gods who came to 
Hawaii; the gods of her old home now known 
through all Polynesia; the great gods Lono and 
his brothers, coming in the winds of heaven. 
Then she called on all the noted winds of the 
island Niihau, stating the directions from which 
they came, the points of land struck when they 
touched the island and their gentleness or wrath, 
their weakness or power, and their helpfulness or 
destructiveness. 

For a long time she chanted, calling wind after 
wind, and while she sang, soft breezes blew around 
and through the house; then came stronger 
winds whistling through the trees outside. As 
the voice of the singer rose or fell so also danced 
the winds in strict harmony. While she sang, 
the people outside the house cried out, ^^The sea 
grows rough and white, the waves are tossed by 
strong winds and clouds are flying, the winds are 
gathering the clouds and twisting the heavens.'' 

But one of the dragon-women sitting near 
Lohiau said: ^'The noise you think is from the 
sea or rustUng through the leaves of the trees is 



PELE'S LONG SLEEP 8i 

only the sound of the people talking outside the 
great building. Their murmur is like the voice 
of the wind.'' 

Then Pele chanted for the return of the winds 
to Niihau and its small islands and the day was 
at peace as the voice of the singer softened 
toward the end of the chant. Hushed were the 
people and wondering were the eyes turned upon 
Pele by the chiefs who were seated in the great 
halau. Pele leaned on her couch of soft mats 
and rested. 

Very angry was Kilinoe, the dragon-woman. 
Full of fire were her eyes and dark was her face 
with hot blood, but she only said: ^^You have 
seen Niihau. Perhaps also you know the winds 
of Kauai.'' By giving this challenge she thought 
she would overthrow the power of Pele over 
Lohiau. She did not know who Pele was, but 
supposed she was one of the women of high rank 
native to Kauai. 

Pele again chanted, calling for the guardian 
winds of the island Kauai: 

''O Kauai, great island of the Lehua, 
Island moving in the ocean, 
Island moving from Tahiti, 
Let the winds rattle the branches to Hawaii. 
Let them point to the eye of the sun. 
There is the wind of Kane at sunset — 
The hard night- wind for Kauai." 



82 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

Then she called for kite-flying winds when the 
birds sport in the heavens and the surf Hes quiet 
on incoming waves, and then she sang of the 
winds kolonahe, softly blowing; and the winds 
hunahuna, breaking into fragments; and the 
winds which carry the mist, the sprinkling 
shower, the falling rain and the severe storm; 
the winds which touch the mountain- tops, and 
those which creep along the edge of the preci- 
pices, holding on by their fingers, and those which 
dash over the plains and along the sea-beach, 
blowing the waves into mist. 

Then she chanted how the caves in the seacoast 
were opened and the guardians of the winds lifted 
their calabashes and let loose evil winds, angry 
and destructive, to sweep over the homes of 
the people and tear in pieces their fruit-trees and 
houses. Then Pele's voice rang out while she 
made known the character of the beautiful 
dragon-women, the guardians of the caves of 
Haena, calling them the mocking winds of 
Haena. 

The people did not understand, but the dragon- 
women knew that Pele only needed to point them 
out as they sat near Lohiau, to have all the chiefs 
cry out against them in scorn. Out of the house 
they rushed, fleeing back to their home in the 
caves. 

When Pele ceased chanting, winds without 



PELE'S LONG SLEEP ^:^ 

number began to come near, scraping over the 
land. The surf on the reef was roaring. The 
white sand of the beach rose up. Thunder fol- 
lowed the rolling, rumbhng tongue of branching 
lightning. Mist crept over the precipices. Run- 
ning water poured down the face of the cliffs. 
Red water and white water fled seaward, and the 
stormy heart of the ocean rose in tumbled heaps. 
The people rushed to their homes. The chiefs 
hastened from the house of pleasure. The feast 
and the day of dancing were broken up. Lohiau 
said to Pele: ^^How great indeed have been your 
true words telUng the evil of this day. Here 
have come the winds and destructive storms of 
Haena. Truly this land has had evil to-day.'^ 

When Pele had laid herself down on the soft 
mats of Puna for her long sleep she had charged 
her little sister, who had been carried in her 
bosom, to wake her if she had not returned to 
life before nine days were past. 

The days were almost through to the last 
moment when Lohiau lamented the evil which his 
land had felt. Then as the winds died away and 
the last strong gust journeyed out toward the 
sea Pele heard Hiiaka^s voice calling from the 
island Hawaii in the magic chant Pele had told 
her to use to call her back to life. 

Hearing this arousing call, she bowed her 
head and wept. After a time she said to Lohiau: 



84 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

^^It is not for me to remain here in pleasure with 
you. I must return because of the call of my 
sister. Your care is to obey my law, which is 
upon you. Calm will take the place of the 
storm, the winds will be quiet, the sea will 
ebb peaceful^, cascades will murmur on the 
mountain sides, and sweet flowers will be among 
the leaves. I will send my little sister, then 
come quickly to my home in Puna." 

Hiiaka knew that the time had come w^hen she 
must arouse her goddess sister from that deep 
sleep. So she commenced the incantation which 
Pele told her to use. It would call the wander- 
ing spirit back to its home, no matter where 
it might have gone. This incantation was known 
as ^^Hulihia ke au" ('^The current is turning"). 
This was a call carried by the spirit-power of 
the one who uttered it into far-away places 
to the very person for whom it was intended. 
The closing lines of the incantation were a per- 
sonal appeal to Pele to awake. 

"E Pele e! The milky way (the i^a) turns. 

E Pele e! The night changes. 

E Pele e! The red glow is on the island. 

E Pele el The red dawn breaks. 

E Pele e! Shadows are cast by the sunlight. 

E Pele e! The sound of roaring is in your crater. 

E Pele e! The uhi-uha is in your crater [this means 

the sound of wash of lava is in the crater]. 

E Pele e! Awake, arise, return." 



PELE'S LONG SLEEP 85 

The spirit of Pele heard the wind, Naue, pass- 
ing down to the sea and soon came the call of 
Hiiaka over the waters. Then she bowed 
down her head and wept. 

When Lohiau saw the tears pouring down the 
face of his wife he asked why in this time of glad- 
ness she wept. 

For a long time she did not reply. Then she 
spoke of the winds with which she had danced 
that night — the guardians of Niihau and Kauai, a 
people listening to her call, under the ruler of all 
the winds, the great Lono, dwelling on the waters. 

Then she said: ^^ You are my husband and I am 
your wife, but the call has come and I cannot 
remain with you. I will return to my land — to 
the fragrant blossoms of the hala, but I will 
send one of my younger sisters to come after 
you. Before I forsook my land for Kauai I 
put a charge upon my young sister to call me 
before nine days and nights had passed. Now I 
hear this call and I must not abide by the great 
longing of your thought." 

Then the queen of fire ceased speaking and be- 
gan to be lost to Lohiau, who was marvelling 
greatly at the fading away of his loved one. As 
Pele disappeared peace came to him and all the 
land of Kauai was filled with calm and rest. 

Pele's spirit passed at once to the body lying 
in the house thatched with ti* leaves in Puna. 

* Cordyline terminalis. 



86 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

Soon she arose and told Hiiaka to call the sisters 
from the sea and they would go inland. 

Then they gathered around the house in which 
Pele had slept. Pele told them they must dance 
the hula of the lifted tabu, and asked them, one 
after the other, to dance, but they all refused until 
she came to Hiiaka, who had guarded her during 
her long sleep. Hiiaka desired to go down to the 
beach and bathe with a friend, Hopoe, while the 
others went inland. 

Pele said, ^^You cannot go unless you first 
dance for the lifted tabu.'' 

Hiiaka arose and danced gloriously before the 
hula god and chanted while she danced — 

"Puna dances in the wind. 
The forest of Keaau is shaken. 
Haena moves quietly. 
There is motion on the beach of Nanahuki. 
The hula-lea danced by the wife, 
Dancing with the sea of Nanahuki. 
Perhaps this is a dance of love, 
For the friend loved in the sleep." 

Pele rejoiced over the skill of her younger sister 
and was surprised by the chanted reference to 
the experiences at Haena. She granted permis- 
sion to Hiiaka to remain by the sea with her friend 
Hopoe, bathing and surf-riding until a messenger 
should be sent to call her home to Kilauea. 
Then Pele and the other sisters went inland. 



HOPOE, THE DANCING STONE 87 




XII 
HOPOE, THE DANCING STONE 

"Moving back and forth in the wind 
Softly moving in the quiet breeze 
Rocking by the side of the sea." 

— Ancient Hopoe Chant. 

N the southeastern seacoast of the 
island Hawaii, near a hamlet called 
Keaau, is a large stone which was 
formerly so balanced that it could be 
easily moved. One of the severe earthquake 
shocks of the last century overthrew the stone and 
it now lies a great black mass of lava rock near 
the seashore. 

This stone in the long ago was called by the 
natives Hopoe, because Hopoe, the graceful 
dancer of Puna who taught Hiiaka, the youngest 
sister of Pele, how to dance, was changed into this 
rock. The story of the jealousy and anger of 
Pele, which resulted in overwhelming Hopoe in a 
flood of lava and placing her in the form of a 
balanced rock to dance by the sea to the music 
of the eternally moving surf, is a story which 
must be kept on record for the lovers of Hawaiian 
folklore. 



88 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

Pele had come from the islands of the south 
seas and had found the Hawaiian Islands as 
they are at the present day. After visiting all 
the other islands she settled in Puna, on the 
large island Hawaii. There she had her long 
sleep in which she went to the island Kauai 
and found her lover Lohiau, whom she promised 
to send for that he might come to her home in the 
volcano Kilauea. 

Pele called her sisters one by one and told them 
to go to Kauai, but they feared the uncertainty 
of Pele's jealousy and wrath and refused to go. 
At last she called for Hiiaka, but she was down 
by the seashore with her friend Hopoe. There 
in a beautiful garden spot grew the fine food plants 
of the old Hawaiians. There were ohias * (apples) 
and the brilliant red, feathery blossoms of the 
lehua trees, and there grew the hala, from which 
sweet-scented skirts and mats were woven. 

Hopoe was very graceful and knew all the 
dances of the ancient people. Hour after hour 
she taught Hiiaka the oldest hulas (dances) 
known among the Hawaiians until Hiiaka ex- 
celled in all beautiful motions of the human 
form. Hopoe taught Hiiaka how to make 
leis (wreaths) from the most fragrant and splen- 
did flowers. Together they went out into the 
white-capped waves bathing and swimming 

*0hia ai =Jambosa Malacrensis. Ohia Ha =Syzygium Sandwicense. 




i 



HOPOE, THE DANCING STONE 89 

and seeking the fish of the coral caves. Thus 
they learned to have great love for each other. 
The girl from the south seas promised to care for 
the Hawaiian girl whose home was in the midst 
of volcanic fires, and the Hawaiian gave pledge 
to aid and serve as best she could. 

Together they were making life happy when 
Pele called for Hiiaka. Out from the fumes of 
the crater, echoing from hill to hill through 
Puna, rustling the leaves of the forest trees, 
that insistent voice came to the younger sister. 

Hiiaka by her magic power quickly passed 
from the seashore to the volcano. Some of the 
native legends say that Pele had slept near the 
seashore where she had commenced to build a 
volcanic home for herself and her sisters, and 
that while longing for the coming of her lover 
Lohiau she had dug feverishly, throwing up hills 
and digging some of the many pit craters which 
are famous in the district of Puna. 

At last she determined to visit Ailaau, the god 
residing in Kilauea, but he had fled from her and 
she had taken his place and found a home in the 
earthquake-shaken pit of molten lava, leaping 
fire, and overwhelming sulphur smoke. Here she 
felt that her burning love could wait no longer 
and she must send for Lohiau. 
I To her came Hiiaka fresh from the clear waters 
of the sea and covered with leis made by her 



go LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

friend Hopoe. For a few minutes she stood be- 
fore her sisters. Then untwisting the wreaths 
one by one she danced until all the household 
seemed to be overcome by her grace and glad- 
ness. She sent the influence of her good-will deep 
into the hearts of her sisters. 

Pele alone looked on with scowling dissatisfied 
face. As soon as she could she said to Hiiaka: 
^^Go far away; go to Kauai; get a husband for 
us, and bring him to Hawaii. Do not marry 
him. Do not even embrace him. He is tabu 
to you. Go forty days only — no longer for going 
or coming back." 

Hiiaka looked upon the imperious goddess of 
fire and said: ^'That is right. I go after your 
husband but I lay my charge upon you: You 
must take care of my lehua forest and not permit 
it to be injured. You may eat all other places 
of ours, but you must not touch my own lehua 
grove, my delight. You will be waiting here. 
Anger will arise in you. You will destroy inland; 
you will destroy toward the sea; but you must 
not touch my friend — my Hopoe. You will 
eat Puna with your burning wrath, but you must 
not go near Hopoe. This is my covenant with 
you, O Pele.'' 

Pele replied: ^^This is right; I will care for 
your forest and your friend. Go you for our 
husband." As Pele had charged Hiiaka so had 



HOPOE, THE DANCING STONE 91 

Hiiaka laid her commandment on Pele. Hiiaka, 
like the other sisters, knew how uncertain Pele 
was in all her moods and how suddenly and 
unexpectedly her wrath would bring destruction 
upon anything appearing to oppose her. There- 
fore she laid upon Pele the responsibility of 
caring for and protecting Hopoe. This was 
ceremonial oath-taking between the two. 

Hiiaka rose to prepare for the journey, but 
Pele's impatience at every moment's delay was 
so great that she forced Hiiaka away without 
food or extra clothing. Hiiaka slowly went forth 
catching only a magic pa-u, or skirt, which had 
the death-dealing power of flashing lightning. 

As she climbed the walls of the crater she 
looked down on her sisters and chanted: 

"The traveller is ready to go for the loved one, 
The husband of the dream. 
I stand, I journey while you remain, 
O women with bowed heads. 
Oh my lehua forest — inland at Kaliu, 
The longing traveller journeys many days 
For the lover of the sweet dreams, 
For Lohiau ipo." — Ancient Hiiaka Chant. 

When Pele heard this chant from the forgiving 
love of. her little sister she relented somewhat 
and gave Hiiaka a portion of her divine power 
with which to wage battle against the demons 
and dragons and sorcerers innumerable whom 



92 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

she would meet in her journey, and also sent 
Pauopalae, the woman of supernatural power, 
who cared for the ferns of all kinds around the 
volcano, to be her companion. 

As Hiiaka went up to the highlands above the 
volcano she looked down over Puna. Smoke 
from the volcano fell toward the sea, making 
dark the forest along the path to Keaau, where 
Hopoe dwelt. Hiiaka, with a heavy heart, went 
on her journey, fearing that this smoke might 
be prophetic of the wrath of the goddess of 
fire visited at the suggestion of some sudden 
jealousy or suspicion upon Hopoe and her house- 
hold. 

What the Hawaiians call mana, or supernatural 
power able to manifest itself in many ways, had 
come upon Hiiaka. She found this power grow- 
ing within her as she overcame obstacle after 
obstacle in the progress of her journey. Thus 
Hiiaka from time to time as she passed over 
the mountains of the different islands was 
able to look back over the dearly loved land 
of Puna. 

At last she saw the smoke, which had clouded 
the forests along the way to the home of her 
friend, grow darker and blacker and then change 
into the orange hues of outbreaking fire. She 
felt Pele's unfaithfulness and chanted: 



HOPOE, THE DANCING STONE 93 

" Yellow grows the smoke of Ka-lua (the crater) 
Turning heavily toward the sea. 
Turning against my aikane (bosom friend), 
Coming near to my loved one. 
Rising up — straight up 
And going down from the pit." 

After many days had passed and she had found 
Lohiau she had another vision of Puna and saw 
a great eruption of lava making desolate the 
land. There had been many hindrances to the 
progress of Hiiaka and she had been slow. The 
w^aiting and impatient goddess of fire became 
angry with her messenger and hurled lava from 
the pit crater down into the forests which she 
had promised to protect. Hiiaka chanted: 

"The smoke bends over Kaliu. 
I thought my lehuas were tabu. 
The birds of fire are eating them up. 
They are picking my lehuas 
Until they are gone." 

Then from that far-off island of Kauai she 
looked over her burning forest toward the sea 
and again chanted: 

"O my friend of the steep ridges above Keaau, 
My friend who made garlands 
Of the lehua blossoms of Kaliu, 
Hopoe is driven away to the sea — 
The sea of Lanahiku." 



94 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

Fiercer and more devouring were the lava 
floods hurled out over the forest so loved by 
Hiiaka. Heavier were the earthquake shocks 
shaking all the country around the volcano. 
Then Hiiaka bowed her head and said: 

"Puna is shaking in the wind, 
Shaking is the hala grove of Keaau, 
TumbHng are Haena and Hopoe, 
Moving is the land — moving is the sea." 

Thus by her spirit-power she looked back to 
Hawaii and saw Puna devastated and the land 
covered by the destructive floods of lava sent out 
by Pele. 

Hopoe was the last object of Pele's anger at 
her younger sister, but there was no escape. 
The slow torrent of lava surrounded the beach 
where Hopoe waited death. She placed the 
garlands Hiiaka had loved over her head and 
shoulders. She wore the finest skirt she had 
woven from lauhala leaves. She looked out over 
the death-dealing seas into which she could not 
flee, and then began the dance of death. 

There Pele's fires caught her but did not 
devour her. The angry goddess of fire took away 
her human life and gave her goblin power. Pele 
changed Hopoe into a great block of lava and 
balanced it on the seashore. Thus Hopoe was 
able to dance when the winds blew or the earth 



HOPOE, THE DANCING STONE 



95 



shook or some human hand touched her and 
disturbed her dehcate poise. It is said that for 
centuries she has been the dancing stone of 
Puna. 

Hiiaka fulfilled her mission patiently and 
faithfully, bringing Lohiau even from a grave in 
which he had been placed back to life and at 
last presenting him before Pele although all 
along the return journey she was filled with 
bitterness because of the injustice of Pele in 
dealing death to Hopoe. 




96 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 



XIII 
HIIAKA'S BATTLE WITH DEMONS 



I 



IIAKA, the youngest sister of Pele, the 
goddess of fire, is the central figure of 
many a beautiful Hawaiian myth. She 
was sent on a wearisome journey over all 
the islands to find Lohiau, the lover of Pele. 

Out of the fire-pit of the volcano, Kilauea, 
she climbed. Through a multitude of cracks 
and holes, out of which poured fumes of foul 
gases, she threaded her way until she stood on 
the highest plateau of lava the volcano had been 
able to build. 

Pele was impatient and angry at the slow 
progress of Hiiaka and at first ordered her to 
hasten alone on her journey, but as she saw her 
patiently climbing along the rough way, she 
relented and gave to her supernatural power to 
aid in overcoming great difficulties and a magic 
skirt which had the power of lightning in its folds. 
But she saw that this w^as not enough, so she 
called on the divine guardians of plants to come 
with garments and bear a burden of skirts with 
which to drape Hiiaka on her journey. At last 



HIIAKA'S BATTLE WITH DEMONS 97 

the goddess of ferns, Pau-o-palae, came with a 
skirt of ferns which pleased Pele. It was thrown 
over Hiiaka, the most beautiful drapery which 
could be provided. 

Pau-o-palae was clothed with a network of 
most delicate ferns. She was noted because of 
her magic power over all the ferns of the forest, 
and for her skill in using the most graceful 
fronds for clothing and garlands. 

Pele ordered Pau-o-palae to go with Hiiaka 
as her kahu, or guardian servant. She was very 
beautiful in her fern skirt and garland, but 
Hiiaka was of higher birth and nobler form and 
was more royal in her beauty than her follower, 
the goddess of ferns. It was a queen of highest 
legendary honor with one of her most worthy 
attendants setting forth on a strange quest 
through lands abounding in dangers and ad- 
ventures. 

Everywhere in ancient Hawaii were eepas, 
kupuas, and mo-os. Eepas were the deformed 
inhabitants of the Hawaiian gnomeland. They 
were twisted and defective in mind and body. 
They were the deceitful, treacherous fairies, 
living in the most beautiful places of the forest 
or glen, often appearing as human beings but 
always having some defect in some part of the 
body. Kupuas were gnomes or elves of super- 



98 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

natural power, able to appear in some nature- 
form as well as like a human being. Mo-os were 
the dragons of Hawaiian legends. They came 
to the Hawaiian Islands only as the legendary 
memories of the crocodiles and great snakes of 
the lands from which the first Hawaiian natives 
emigrated. 

Throughout Polynesia the mo-o, or moko, re- 
mained for centuries in the minds of the natives 
of different island groups as their most dreadful 
enemy, living in deep pools and sluggish streams. 

Hiiaka's first test of patient endurance came in 
a battle with the kupuas of a forest lying between 
the volcano and the ocean. 

The land of the island Hawaii slopes down from 
the raging fire-pit, mile after mile, through dense 
tropical forests and shining lava beds, until it 
enfolds, in black lava shores, the ceaselessly 
moving waters of the bay of Hilo. In this forest 
dwelt Pana-ewa, a reptile-man. He w^as very 
strong and could be animal or man as he desired, 
and could make the change in a moment. He 
watched the paths through the forest, hoping 
to catch strangers, robbing them and sometimes 
devouring them. Some he permitted to pass, 
but for others he made much trouble, bringing 
fog and rain and wind until the road was lost 
to them. 





vy^.i 



I fi 



HIIAKA'S BATTLE WITH DEMONS 99 

He ruled all the evil forces of the forest 
above Hilo. Every wicked sprite who twisted 
vines to make men stumble over precipices 
or fall into deep lava caves was his servant. 
Every demon wind, every foul fiend dwelling in 
dangerous branches of falling trees, every wicked 
gnome whirling clouds of dust or fog and wrap- 
ping them around a traveller, in fact every living 
thing which could in any way injure a traveller 
was his loyal subject. He was the kupua chief 
of the vicious sprites and cruel elves of the forest 
above Hilo. Those who knew about Pana-ewa 
brought offerings of awa* to drink, taro and red 
fish to eat, tapa for mats, and malos, or girdles. 
Then the way was free from trouble. 

There were two bird-brothers of Pana-ewa; 
very little birds, swift as a flash of lightning, giv- 
ing notice of any one coming through the forest 
of Pana-ewa. 

Hiiaka, entering the forest, threw aside her 
fern robes, revealing her beautiful form. Two 
birds flew around her and before her. One called 
to the other, ^^This is one of the women of ka 
lua (the pit).'' The other answered, ^'She is not 
as strong as Pana-ewa; let us tell our brother.'' 

Hiiaka heard the birds and laughed; then she 
chanted, and her voice rang through all the forest: 

* Piper methysticum. 



lOO LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

"Pana-ewa is a great lehua island; 
A forest of ohias inland. 
Fallen are the red flowers of the lehua,* 
Spoiled are the red apples of the ohia,* 
Bald is the head of Pana-ewa; 
Smoke is over the land; 
The fire is burning." 

— Translated from a Hiiaka Chant. 

Hiiaka hoped to make Pana-ewa angry by 
reminding him of seasons of destruction by lava 
eruptions, which left bald lava spots in the midst 
of the upland forest. 

Pana-ewa, roused by his bird watchmen and 
stirred by the taunt of Hiiaka, said: ^^This is 
Hiiaka, who shall be killed by me. I will swallow 
her. There is no road for her to pass.'' 

The old Hawaiians said that Pana-ewa had 
many bodies. He attacked Hiiaka in his fog 
body, Kino-ohu, and threw around her his twist- 
ing fog-arms, chilling her and choking her and 
blinding her. He wrapped her in the severe cold 
mantle of heavy mists. 

Hiiaka told her friend to hold fast to her girdle 
while she led the way, sweeping aside the fog 
with her magic skirt. Then Pana-ewa took his 
body called the bitter rain, ua-awa, the cold 
freezing rain which pinches and shrivels the skin. 

* One ohia tree is supposed to bear apples, another flowers only, the 
flowers being called lehua. There is much confusion in regard to these 
two trees even among botanists. 



HIIAKA'S BATTLE WITH DEMONS loi 

He called also for the strong winds to bend down 
trees and smite his enemy, and lie in tangled 
masses in her path. So the way was hard. 

Hiiaka swiftly swept her lightning skirt up 
against the beating rain and drove it back. 
Again and again she struck against the fierce 
storm and against the destructive winds. Some- 
times she was beaten back, sometimes her arms 
were so weary that she could scarcely move her 
skirt, but she hurled it over and over against 
the storm until she drove it deeper into the forest 
and gained a little time for rest and renewal of 
strength. 

On she went into the tangled woods and the 
gods of the forest rose up against her. They 
tangled her feet with vines. They struck her 
with branches of trees. The forest birds in mul- 
titudes screamed around her, dashed against her, 
tried to pick out her eyes and confuse her every 
effort. The god and his followers brought all their 
power and enchantments against Hiiaka. Hiiaka 
made an incantation against these enemies: 

"Night is at Pana-ewa and bitter is the storm; 
The branches of the trees are bent down; 
Rattling are the flowers and leaves of the lehua; 
Angrily growls the god Pana-ewa, 
Stirred up inside by his wrath. 

Oh, Pana-ewa! 

I give you hurt, 
Behold, I give the hard blows of battle." 



I02 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

She told her friend to stay far back in the places 
already conquered, while she fought with a bam- 
boo knife in one hand and her lightning skirt in 
the other. Harsh noises were on every hand. 
From each side she was beaten and sometimes 
almost crushed under the weight of her opponents. 
Many she cut down with her bamboo knife and 
many she struck v/ith her lightning skirt. The 
two little birds flew over the battlefield and saw 
Hiiaka nearly dead from wounds and weariness, 
and their own gods of the forest lying as if asleep. 
They called to Pana-ewa: 

"Our gods are tired from fighting, 
They sleep and rest." 

Pana-ewa came and looked at them. He saw 
that they were dead without showing deep injury, 
and wondered how they had been killed. The 
birds said, ^^ We saw her skirt moving against the 
gods, up and down, back and forth." 

Again the hosts of that forest gathered around 
the young chief ess. Again she struggled bitterly 
against the multitude of foes, but she was very, 
very tired and her arms sometimes refused to 
lift her knife and skirt. The discouraged woman 
felt that the battle w^as going against her, so she 
called for Pele, the goddess of fire. 

Pele heard the noise of the conflict and the 
voice of her sister. She called for a body of her 



HIIAKA'S BATTLE WITH DEMONS 103 

own servants to go down and fight the powerful 
kupua. 

The Hawaiian legends give the name Ho-ai-ku 
to these reinforcements. This means ^^ standing 
for food'' or ^^devourers." Lightning storms 
were hurled against Pana-ewa, flashing and cut- 
ting and eating all the gods of the forest. 

Hiiaka in her weariness sank down among the 
foes she had slain. 

The two little birds saw her fall and called to 
Pana-ewa to go and take the one he had said he 
would ^^ swallow." He rushed to the place where 
she lay. She saw him coming and wearily arose 
to give battle once more. 

A great thunderstorm swept down on Pana- 
ewa. As he had fought Hiiaka with the cold 
forest winds, so Pele fought him with the storms 
from the pit of fire. Lightning drove him down 
through the forest. A mighty rain filled the 
valleys with red water. The kupuas were swept 
down the river beds and out into the ocean, 
where Pana-ewa and the remnant of his follow- 
ers were devoured by sharks. 

The Ho-ai-ku, as the legends say, went down 
and swallowed Pana-ewa, eating him up. Thus 
the land above Hilo became a safe place for the 
common people. To this day it is known by the 
name Pana-ewa. 




XIV 



HOW HIIAKA FOUND WAHINE-OMAO 




HE story of the journey of the youngest 
sister of Pele, the goddess of volcanic 
fires, when seeking a husband for her 
oldest sister, has a simple and yet ex- 
ceedingly human element in the incidents which 
cluster around the finding of a faithful fol- 
lower and friend. It is a story of two girls 
attracted to each other by lovable qualities. 
Hiiaka was a goddess with an attendant from 
the old Hawaiian fairyland — the Guardian of 
Ferns. Then there was added the human 
helper, Wahine-omao, or ^Hhe light-colored 
woman.'' 

While Hiiaka was journeying through the 
lower part of the forest which she had freed 
from demons, the Guardian of Ferns said: **I 
hear the grunting of a pig, but cannot tell 
whether it is before us or on one side. Where 
is it — from the sea or inland?" 

Hiiaka said: ^^This is a pig from the sea. It 



HOW HIIAKA FOUND WAHINE-OMAO 105 

is the Humuhumu-nukunuku-a-puaa. It is the 
grunting, angular pigfish. There is also a pig 
from the land. There are two pigs. They are 
before us. They belong to a woman and are 
for a gift — a sacrifice to the sister goddess who 
is over us two. This is Wahine-omao." 

They walked on through the restful shadows 
of the forest and soon met a beautiful woman 
carrying a little black pig and a striped, angular 
fish. Humuhumu means ^^ grunting.'' Nuku- 
nuku means ^^ cornered.'' Puaa means "pig.'' 
The Humuhumu-nukunuku-a-puaa was a fish 
with a sharp-pointed back, grunting like a pig. 
It was the fish into which the fabled demi-god 
Kamapuaa changed himself when fleeing from 
the destructive fires of Pele. 

Hiiaka greeted the stranger, "Love to you, 
O Wahine-omao." 

The woman replied: "It is strange that you 
two have my name while your eyes are unknown 
to me. What are your names and where do you 

go?'' 

The sister of Pele concealed their names. "I 
am Ku and Ka is the name of my friend. A 
troublesome journey is before us beyond the 
waters of Hilo and the kupuas [demons] dwelling 
there and along the hard paths over the cliffs 
of the seacoast even to the steady blowing winds 
of Kohala." 



io6 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

The newcomer looked longingly into the eyes 
of the young chief ess and said: '^I have a great 
desire for that troublesome journey, but this 
pig is a sacrifice for the goddess of the crater. 
Shall I throw away the pig and go with you?'' 

Hiiaka told her to hurry on, saying: ^^If your 
purpose is strong to go with us, take your 
sacrifice pig to the woman of the pit. Then 
come quickly after us. You will find us. While 
you go say continually, ^O Ku! O Ka! O Ku! 
O Ka!' When you arrive at the pit throw the 
pig down into the fire and return quickly, 
saying, ^0 Ku! Ka!' until you find us." 

The woman said: ^'I will surely remember 
your words, but you are so beautiful and have 
such power that I think you are Pele. Take 
my pig now and end my trouble." Then she 
started to throw herself and her offerings on 
the ground before Hiiaka. 

Hiiaka forbade this and explained that the 
offering must be taken as had been vowed. 

Then the woman took her sacred gifts and 
went up through the woods to the crater, saying 
over and over, *'0 Ku! O Ka!" all the time 
realizing that new activity and life were coming 
to her and that she was moving as swiftly as 
the wind. In a little while she stood on the high 
point above the crater called Kolea — the place 
where birds rested. Before her lay a great 



HOW HIIAKA FOUND WAHINE-OMAO 107 

circular plain, black-walled, full of burning 
lava leaping up in wonderful fire-dances and 
boiling violently around a group of beautiful 
women. She called to Pele: 

^'EPelee! Here is my sacrifice — a pig. 
E Pele e! Here is my gift — a pig. 
Here is a pig for you, 
O goddess of the burning stones. 
Life for me. Life for you. 
The flowers of fire wave gently. 
Here is your pig." — Amama. 

The woman threw the pig and the fish over 
the edge into the mystic fires beneath and leaned 
over, looking down into the deadliness of the 
fire and smoke which received the sacrifice. 
Flaming hands leaped up, caught the gifts and 
drew them down under the red surface. But 
in a moment there was a rush upward of a 
fountain of lava and hurled up with it she saw 
the body of the little black pig tossing in the 
changing jets of fire. 

Down it went again into the whirling, groaning 
fires of the underworld. Then she knew that 
the sacrifice had been accepted and that she was 
free from her vow of service to Pele. Every 
tabu upon her free action had been removed 
and she was free — free to do according to her own 
wish. Then she saw one of the women of the 
pit slowly changing into an old woman lying on 



lo8 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

a mat of fire apart from the others. It was 
Pele who was always growing more and more 
jealous and angry with Hiiaka. 

Pele called from the pit of fire, *^0 woman! 
have you seen two travellers?" 

When she learned that they had been seen 
going on their journey she charged her new wor- 
shipper to go wdth Hiiaka and always spy upon 
her movements. 

Wahine-omao became angry and cried out: 
'^ When I came here I thought you were beautiful 
with the glory of fire resting on you. Your 
sisters are beautiful, but you are a harsh old 
woman. Your eyes are red. Your eyebrows 
and hair are burned. You are the woman with 
scorched eyeUds." Then she ran from the 
crater, saying, ' ' O Ku ! O Ka ! " Her feet seemed 
to be placed on a swift-moving cloud and in a 
few moments she was dropped by the side of 
Hiiaka. 

The three women, Hiiaka, the powerful, Pau- 
o-palae, the fairy of the ferns, and Wahine-omao, 
the brave and beautiful young woman of the forest, 
went on toward Hilo. They came to a grove^of 
ohia, or native apple, trees, and the new friend 
begged them to rest for a little while in this place, 
for it was her father's home. 

Hiiaka hesitated, saying: ^^I am afraid that 
you would entangle me, O friend! Some one 



HOW HIIAKA FOUND WAHINE-OMAO 109 

is waiting below whom I must see. Our journey 
cannot end/' 

^^Oh," said the woman, ^^I intend not to stay. 
Stepping sideways was my thought to see my 
family dweUing in this house — then journey on." 

They turned aside through the red-fruited tall 
ohia trees to a resting-place called Papa-lau-ahi, 
or the fireleaf of lava spread out flat like a board. 
This has always been a resting-place for travellers 
coming across the island to Hilo Bay. There 
they greeted friends and rested, but Hiiaka 
thought lovingly of another friend, Hopoe, far 
dearer to her than any one else. Tears rolled 
down her cheeks. 

Wahine-omao said, '^Why do you weep, O 
friend? '^ The reply came: ^^ Because of my 
friend who lives over by that sea far below us. 
The smoke of the fire-anger of our sister-lord 
is falling over toward my friend Hopoe." 

Wahine-omao said: ^^One of our people truly 
lives over there. We know and love her well, but 
her name is Nana-huki. The name is given 
because when looking at you her eyes are like 
a cord pulling you to her." 

*^Yes," said Hiiaka, ^^that is her name, but 
for me she had the sweet-scented hala wreaths 
and the beautiful wreaths of the red blossoms of 
the lehua and baskets of the most delicious treas- 
ures of the sea. So my name for her is Hopoe." 



no LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

The name Hopoe may mean '^one encircled/' 
as with leis, or wreaths, or as with loving arms, or 
possibly it might convey the idea of one set 
apart in a special class or company. Both 
thoughts might well be included in the deep love 
of the young goddess for a human friend. 

The time came for the three women to hasten 
on their way. The final alohas were said. The 
friends rubbed noses in the old Hawaiian way 
and went down to Hilo. 

Hiiaka looked again from the upland over to 
the distant seacoast and wailed: 

"My journey opens to Kauai. 
Loving is my thought for my aikane, 
My bosom friend — 
Hopoe — my sweet-scented hala. 
Far will we go; 
Broad is the land; 
Perhaps Kauai is the end." 

Thus Hiiaka sent her loving thoughts over for- 
est and rugged lava plains to her dearest friend 
even while she opened her heart to another friend 
who served her with the utmost faithfulness and 
love all the rest of her eventful journey. 



HIIAKA CATCHING A GHOST ill 




XV 

HIIAKA CATCHING A GHOST 

IIAKA, the sister of Pele, and the god- 
dess of ferns, and their new friend Wa- 
hine-omao, were hastening through the 
forests above the bay of Hilo. They 
came near a native house. Two girls were lying 
on a mat near the doorway. The girls saw the 
strangers and with hearts full of hospitahty cried: 
'^O women strangers, stop at our house and eat. 
Here are dried fish and the kilu-ai [a-little-cala- 
bash-full-of-poi, the native food].'' It was all 
the food the girls had, but they offered it gladly. 

Hiiaka said: '^One of us will stop and eat. 
Two of us will pass on. We are not hungry.'' 
The truth was that Wahine-omao of the light 
skin needed food like any one not possessing 
semi-divine powers. 

So Wahine-omao stopped and ate. She saw 
that the girls were kupilikia (stirred-up-with- 
anxiety) and asked them why they were troubled. 

'*Our father," they said, ^^went to the sea to 
fish in the night and has not returned. We fear 
that he is in trouble." 

Hiiaka heard the words and looked toward the 



112 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

sea. She saw the spirit of that man coming 
up from the beach with an ipu-holoholona 
(a-calabash-for-carrying fish-hnes, etc.) in his 
hands. 

She charged the girls to Usten carefully while 
she told them about their father, saying: *^You 
must not let tears fall or wailing tones come into 
your voices. Your father has been drowned in 
the sea during the dark night. The canoe filled 
with water. The swift-beating waters drove 
your father on to the reef of coral and there his 
body lies. The spirit was returning home, but 
now sees strangers and is turning aside. I will 
go and chase that spirit from place to place until 
it goes back to the place where it left its house — 
the body supposed to be dead. Let no one eat 
until my work is done.'' 

Hiiaka looked again toward the sea. The 
spirit was wandering aimlessly from place to place 
with its calabash thrown over its shoulder. It 
was afraid to come near the strangers and yet 
did not want to go back to the body. Hiiaka 
hastened after the ghost and drove it toward the 
house where the girls were living. She checked 
it as it turned to either side and tried to dash away 
into the forest. She pushed it into the door and 
called the girls in. They saw the ghost as if it 
were the natural body. They wept and began to 
beseech Hiiaka to bring him back to life. 



HIIAKA CATCHING A GHOST 113 

She told them she would try, but they must 
remember to keep the bundle of tears inside the 
eyes. She told them that the spirit must take 
her to the body and they must wait until the 
rainbow colors of a divine chief came over their 
house. Then they would know that their father 
was alive. But if a heavy rain should fall they 
would know he was not alive and need not re- 
strain their cries. 

As Hiiaka rose to pass out of the door the ghost 
leaped and disappeared. Hiiaka rushed out and 
saw the ghost run to the sea. She leaped after 
it and followed it to a great stone lying at the 
foot of a steep precipice. There the heana 
(dead body) was lying. It was badly torn by the 
rough coral and the face had been bitten by eels. 
Around it lay the broken pieces of the shattered 
canoe. Hiiaka washed the body in the sea and 
then turned to look for the ghost, but it was run- 
ning away as if carried by a whirlwind. 

Hiiaka thrust out her ^ ^ strong hand of Kilauea.'' 
This meant her power as one of the divine family 
living in the fire of the volcano. She thrust forth ' 
this power and turned the spirit back to the place 
where the body was lying. She drove the ghost 
to the side of the body and ordered it to enter, 
but the ghost thought that it would be a brighter 
and happier life if it could be free among the blos- 
soming trees and fragrant ferns of the forest, so 



114 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

tried again to slip away from the house in which 
it had Hved. 

Hiiaka slapped the ghost back against the body 
and told it to go in at the bottom of a foot. She 
slapped the feet again and again, but it was very 
hard to push the ghost inside. It tried to come 
out as fast as Hiiaka pushed it in. Then Hiiaka 
uttered an incantation, while she struck the feet 
and limbs. The incantation was a call for the 
gift of life from her friends of the volcano. 

"O the top of Kilauea! 
O the five ledges of the pit! 
The taboo fire of the woman. 
When the heavens shake, 
When the earth cracks open [earthquakes], 
Man is thrown down, 
Lying on the ground. 

The Ughtning of Kane [a great god] wakes up. 
Kane of the night, going fast. 
My sleep is broken up. 
E ala e! Wake up! 
The heaven wakes up. 
The earth inland is awake. 
The sea is awake. 

Awake you. 

Here am I." — Amama {The prayer is done). 

By the time this chant was ended Hiiaka had 
forced the ghost up to the hips. There was a 
hard struggle — the ghost trying to go back and 
yet yielding to the slapping and going further and 
further into the body. 



HIIAKA CATCHING A GHOST 115 

Then Hiiaka put forth her hand and took fresh 
water, pouring it over the body, chanting again: 

"I make you grow, O Kane! 
Hiiaka is the prophet. 
This work is hers. 
She makes the growth. 
Here is the water of life. 
E ala e! Awake! Arise! 
Let life return. 
The taboo [of death] is over. 
It is lifted, 
It has flown away." — Amama. 

— These were ancient chants for the restoration 
of Hfe.— 

All this time she was slapping and pounding 
the spirit into the body. It had gone up as far 
as the chest. Then she took more fresh water 
and poured it over the eyes, dashing it into the 
face. The ghost leaped up to the mouth and 
eyes — choking noises were made — the eyes opened 
faintly and closed again, but the ghost was en- 
tirely in the body. Slowly life returned. The 
lips opened and breath came back. 

The healing power of Hiiaka restored the places 
wounded by coral rocks and bitten by eels. Then 
she asked him how he had been overcome. He 
told her he had been fishing when a great 
kupua came in the form of a mighty wave falling 
upon the boat, filling it full of water. 



Ii6 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

The fisherman said that he had tried to bail 
the water out of his canoe, when it was hurled 
down into the coral caves, and he knew nothing 
more until the warm sun shone in his face and 
his eyes opened. Hiiaka told him to stand up, 
and putting out her strong hand lifted him to his 
feet. 

He stood shaking and trembling, trying to 
move his feet. Little by little the power of life 
came back and he walked slowly to his house. 

Hiiaka called for the glory of a divine chief to 
shine around them. Among the ancient Ha- 
waiians it was believed that the eyes of prophets 
could tell the very family to which a high chief 
belonged by the color or peculiar appearance of 
the light around the individual even when a long 
distance away. Thus the watching anxious girls 
and the friends of Hiiaka knew that the ghost 
had gone back into the body and the fisherman 
had been brought back to Ufe. 




HIIAKA AND THE SEACOAST KUPUAS 117 




XVI 

HIIAKA AND THE SEACOAST KUPUAS 

UPUAS were legendary monsters which 
could change themselves into human 
beings at will. They were said to have 
come from far-off lands with the early 
settlers. They had descendants who lived along 
the seacoast or in out-of-the-way places inland. 
They were always ready to destroy and often 
devour any strangers passing near them. Fre- 
quently they were sharks which had a shark 
mouth although appearing like men. This 
mouth was between the shoulders and was 
concealed by a cape thrown carefully over the 
back. As human beings they would mingle with 
their fellows and go out in the sea, bathing and 
surf-riding, but when they went into the water 
they would dive under, assume their shark form, 
and catch some one of the bathers. They would 
carry the body to some under-water cave, where 
it could be devoured. All other sea monsters 
were given human qualities — some were helpful 
to men and some were destructive. 

Fabled monsters lived on land. Some of these 
were gigantic lizards, probably the legendary 



Ii8 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

memory of the crocodiles of their ancient home 
in India. Some were the great clouds floating 
in the heavens. Peculiar rocks, trees, precipices, 
waterfalls, birds, indeed everything with or 
without life, might be given human and super- 
natural power and called kupuas. After a time 
various objects began to have worshippers who 
became priests supposed to be endowed with 
the qualities of the objects worshipped. These, 
in the later days, have been considered sorcerers 
or witches, receiving the name kupuas. 

Makaukiu 

Hiiaka, the sister of Pele, the goddess of 
volcanoes, by her magic power was able to find 
and destroy many of these mysterious monsters. 
She had two companions as she journeyed along 
the eastern coast of the island Hawaii. Their 
way was frequently very wearisome as they 
climbed down steep precipices into valleys and 
gulches and then had to cKmb up on the other 
side. 

In one valley beautiful clear sea-water invited 
the girls to bathe. Two of them threw aside 
their tapa clothes and ran down to the beach. 
Hiiaka bade them wait, telling them this was the 
home of Makaukiu, a very ferocious monster. 
But the girls thought they could see any evil 



HIIAKA AND THE SEACOAST KUPUAS 119 

one, if living in that pure, clear water, so they 
laughed at their friend and went to the edge of 
the water. Hiiaka took some fragrant ti-leaves, 
made a little bundle and threw it into the sea. 
The girls made ready to leap and swim, when 
suddenly Makaukiu appeared just below the 
surface, catching and shaking the leaves. 

The girls fled inland to higher ground, but 
Hiiaka stood at the edge of the sea. The sea 
monster tried to catch her in his great mouth. 
He lashed the water into foam, trying to strike 
her with his tail. He tried to wash her into 
the sea by pushing great, whirling waves against 
her, but Hiiaka struck him with the mighty 
forces of lightning and fire which she had in her 
magic skirt. Soon he was dead and his body 
floated on the water until the tide swept it out 
to sink in the deep sea. The place where this 
monster was slain was given his name and is still 
called "The Swimming-Hole of Makaukiu.'' 

Mahiki 

The Hawaiians say that the desire for battle 
was burning in the heart of Hiiaka and she 
longed to kill Mahiki, who lived near Waipio 
Valley — one of the most beautiful of all the valleys 
of the Hawaiian Islands. Mahiki was a whirl- 
wind. When he saw the girls coming he fled 



I20 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

inland, hiding himself in a cloud of dust. When- 
ever the girls came toward him he fled swiftly 
to a new place. They could not catch and 
destroy him. 

As they were following the whirlwind they 
heard some one calling. They stopped and found 
two persons without bones — the bodies were 
flesh, soft and yielding, yet of human form. 
Hiiaka had pity on them, so she took the ribs of a 
long leaf and pushed them into the soft bodies, 
where they became bones. Then the two could 
stand. After a time they could use their new 
bones in their legs and walk. 

PiLI AND NOHO 

Hiiaka remembered that there were two 
dragons in the river Wailuku, a river of swift 
cascades and beautiful waterfalls near Hilo, so 
she turned back filled with the wish to destroy 
them and free the people from that danger. 

At the place where the people crossed the river 
were two things which looked like large, flat 
logs tossing in the water. Any person wishing 
to cross the river would lay fish, sweet potatoes, 
and other kinds of food on the logs. When these 
things disappeared the logs would act sometimes 
as a bridge and sometimes as a boat, taking those 
who had given presents across the river. These 



HIIAKA AND THE SEACOAST KUPUAS 121 

logs were the great tongues of the dragons 
Pili-a-moo and Noho-a-moo, i.e., the dragon Pili 
and the dragon Noho. 

Hiiaka and her two companions came to the 
river side. The travellers called for an open way 
across. 

One dragon said to the other, ^^Here comes one 
of our family.'' 

The other said : '' What of that? She can cross 
if she pays. If she does not give our price, she 
shall not go over in this place.'' 

Hiiaka ordered the dragons to prepare her 
way, but they refused. Then she taunted them 
as slaves, ordering them to bring vegetable food 
and fish. The dragons became angry and 
thrashed the water into whirlpools, trying to 
catch the travellers and pull them into the 
river. The people from far and near gathered 
to the place of this strange conflict. 

A chief laughed at Hiiaka, saying, ^^ These are 
dragon-gods, and yet you dispute with them!" 

Hiiaka said, *^Yes, they are dragon-gods, but 
when I attack them they will die." 

The chief offered to make any bet desired that 
she could not injure the dragons. 

Hiiaka said, ^^I have no property, but I 
wager my body, my life, against your property 
that the dragons die." 

Then began a great conflict along the banks 



122 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

and in the swift waters. Hiiaka struck the drag- 
ons with her magic skirt in w^hich was concealed 
the divine power of Hghtning. They tried to 
escape, but Hiiaka struck again and again and 
killed them, changing the bodies into blocks 
of stone. Then she called the chief, saying, '^I 
have made the way safe for your people and you; 
I give back your property and the land of the 
dragons. '^ 

Hiiaka and her friends turned north again 
and hastened to Waipio Valley to catch Mahiki — 
the demon of the whirlwind. He ran down to 
meet her and threw dust all over them, then 
fled inland to the mountains. Hiiaka chanted: 

"I am above Waipio, 
My eyes look sharply down. 
I have gone along the path 
By the sea of Makaukiu, 
Full flowing like the surf. 
I have seen Mahiki, 
I have seen that he is evil. 
Evil, very evil indeed." 

MOO-LAU 

Then Hiiaka thought of Moo-lau, who was 
the great dragon-god of the district Kohala. 
He had a great multitude of lesser gods as his 
servants. 



HIIAKA AND THE SEACOAST KUPUAS 123 

Hiiaka clearly and sweetly called for the 
dragon-gods to prepare a way for her and also 
to bring gifts for herself and her companions. 

Moo-lau answered, ^ ' You have no path through 
my lands unless you have great strength or can 
pay the price." 

Then began one of the great legendary battles 
of ancient Hawaiian folk-lore. Hiiaka, throwing 
aside her flower- wreaths and common clothes, 
took her lightning pa-u (skirt) and attacked 
Moo-lau. He fought her in his dragon form. 
He breathed fierce Vv^inds against her. He struck 
her with his swift-moving tail. He tried to 
catch her between his powerful jaws. He coiled 
and twisted and swiftly whirled about, trying 
to knock her down, but she beat him with her 
powerful hands in which dwelt some of the 
divine power of volcanoes. She struck his great 
body with her magic skirt in which dwelt the 
power of the lightning. Each pitted super- 
natural powers against the other. Each struck 
with magic force and each threw out magic 
strength to ward off deadly blows. They became 
tired, very tired, and, turning away from each 
other, sought rest. Again they fought and 
again rested. 

Hiiaka chanted an incantation, or call for 
help: 



124 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

"Moo-lau has a dart 
Of the wood of the uhi-uhi;* 
A god is Moo-lau, 
Moo-lau is a god!" 

This was a spirit-call going out from Hiiaka. 
It broke through the clouds hanging on the 
sides of the mountains. It pierced the long, 
long way to the crater of Kilauea. It roused 
the followers of the fire-goddess. A host of 
destructive forces, swift as lightning, left the 
pit of fire to aid Hiiaka. 

Meanwhile Moo-lau had sent his people to 
spy out the condition of Hiiaka. Then he called 
for all the reptile gods of his district to help him. 
He rallied all the gnomes and evil powers he 
could order to come to his aid and make a mighty 
attack. 

When the battle seemed to be going against 
her, suddenly the Ho-ai-ku men and the Ho-ai-ka 
women, the destructive gnomes from the crater, 
broke in a storm upon Moo-lau and his demons. 
Oh, how the little people from the pit devoured 
and destroyed the dragon army! The slaughter 
of the reptile horde was quickly accomplished 
and Hiiaka soon saw the body of her enemy the 
dragon-god trampled underfoot. 

When the god Mahiki saw that Moo-lau was 
slain and his army defeated he raised a great 

* Smilax Sandwicensis. 



HIIAKA AND THE SEACOAST KUPUAS 125 

cloud of dust and fled far off around the western 
side of the island. The whirlwind was one of 
the earth-monsters which even the sister of the 
goddess of volcanoes could not destroy. 

Many were the evil demi-gods who tried to 
hinder Hiiaka in her journey along the east 
coast of the island Hawaii. Sharks fought her 
from the seas. The gnomes and dragons of 
valley and forest tried to destroy her. Even 
birds of evil omen came into the fight against 
her, but she conquered and killed until the land 
was freed from its enemies and the people of the 
districts along the sea could journey in compara- 
tive safety. 

Pau-o-palae, the goddess of ferns, met the chief 
of this land which had been freed from the 
power of the dragon. She saw him swimming 
in the sea and, forgetting her companions, leaped 
in to sport with him. They at once decided to 
be married. Then she turned aside to his new 
home, leaving Hiiaka and Wahine-omao to go 
on after Lohiau. 





XVII 



LOHIAU 




HE story of Hiiaka's journey over 
the seas which surround the Hawaiian 
Islands, and through dangers and per- 
plexities, cannot be fully told in the 
limits of these short stories. There are several 
versions, so only the substance of all can be given. 
On each island she slew dragons which had 
come from the ancient traditional home of the 
Polynesians, India. She destroyed many evil- 
minded gnomes and elves; fought the au-makuas 
and the demi-gods of land and sea; found the 
body of Lohiau put away in a cave and watched 
over by the dragon-women who had been de- 
feated by Pele when in her long sleep she chanted 



LOHIAU 127 

the songs of the Winds of Kauai. She slew the 
guardians of the cave, carried the body to a 
house where she used powerful chants for res- 
toration. She captured the wandering ghost of 
Lohiau and compelled it again to take up its 
home in the body, and then with Lohiau and 
Wahine-omao made the long journey to her 
home in the volcano. From the island of Hawaii 
to the island Kauai, and along the return jour- 
ney Hiiaka's path was marked with experiences 
beneficial to the people whom she passed. This 
must all be left untold except the story of Lohiau's 
restoration to life and the conflict with Pele. 

As Hiiaka and her friend came near the island 
Kauai, Hiiaka told Wahine-omao that Lohiau 
was dead and that she saw the spirit standing by 
the opening of a cave out on the pali of Haena. 

Then she chanted to Lohiau: 

"The lehua is being covered by the sand, 
A litde red flower remains on the plain, 
The body is hidden in the stones, 
The flower is lying in the path. 
Very useful is the water of Kaunu." 

Thus she told the ghost that she would give new 
life even as dew on a thirsty flower. They landed 
and met Lohiau's sisters and friends. 

Hiiaka asked about the death of Lohiau, and 
one sister said, ^^His breath left him and the body 



128 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

became yellow.'' Hiiaka said: ^^ There was no 
real reason for death, but the two women dragons 
took his spirit and held it captive. I will try 
to bring him back. Great is the magic power and 
strength of the two dragons and I am not a man, 
and may not win the victory. I will have some- 
thing to eat, and then will go. You must es- 
tablish a tabu for twenty days, and there must 
be quiet. No one can go to the mountains, nor 
into the sea. You must have a house made of 
ti * leaves for the dead body and make it very 
tight on all sides." 

The next day they made the house. Hiiaka 
commanded that a door be made toward the 
east. Then Hiiaka said, ^^Let us open the door 
of the house.'' When this was done, Hiiaka 
said: ^^ To-morrow let the tabu be established 
on land and sea. To-morrow we commence our 
work." 

She made arrangements to go to the cave in 
the precipice at dawn. Rain came down in 
floods and a strong wind swept the face of the 
precipice. A fog clung fast to the hills. The 
water rushed in torrents to the sea. It was an 
evil journey to Lohiau. 

At sunrise they went on through the storm. 
Hiiaka uttered this incantation: 

*Ti or ki or lauki, Cordyline terminalis. 




LOHIAU 



LOHIAU 129 

"Our halas greet the inland precipice, 
In the front of the calling hill. 
Let it call, 

You are calling to me. 
Here is the great hill outside. 
It is cold, 
Cold for us." 



The dragons shouted for them to stay down, 
or they would destroy them on the rocks. But 
the small spirit voice of Lohiau called for Hiiaka 
to come and get him. 

Hiiaka chanted to Lohiau, telling him they 
would save him. As they went up, stones in 
showers fell around and upon them. One large 
stone struck Hiiaka in the breast, and she fell off 
the pali. Then they began to get up and sticks 
of all kinds fell upon them again, forcing Hiiaka 
over the precipice. 

The dragons leaped down on Hiiaka, trying to 
catch her in their mouths and strike her with their 
tails. Hiiaka struck them with her magic skirt, 
and their bodies were broken. 

The spirits of the dragons went into other 
bodies and leaped upon Hiiaka roaring, and bit- 
ing and tearing her body. She swung her skirt 
up against the dragons, and burned their bodies 
to ashes. The dragons again took new bodies 
for the last and most bitter battle. 



I30 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

Hiiaka told Wahine-omao to cover her body 
with leaves and sticks near the pali and in event 
of her death to return with the tidings to Hawaii. 

One dragon caught Hiiaka and bent her over. 
The other leaped upon Hiiaka, catching her 
around the neck and arm. One tried to pull 
off the pa-u and tear it to pieces. 

Pau-o-palae saw the danger. From her home 
on the island Hawaii, she saw the dragons 
shaking Hiiaka. Then she sent her power and 
took many kinds of trees and struck the drag- 
ons. The roots twisted around the dragons, 
entangling their feet and tails, and scratching 
eyes and faces. 

The dragons tried to shake off the branches 
and roots — the leaf bodies of the wilderness, 
and one let go the pa-u of Hiiaka, and the other 
let go the neck. Pau-o-palae called all the wind 
bodies of the forest and sent them to aid Hiiaka, 
the forces of the forest, and the wind spirits. 

At last Hiiaka turned to say farewell to 
Wahine-omao because the next fight with the 
dragons in their new bodies might prove fatal. 

The dragons were now stronger than before. 
They leaped upon her, one on each side. The 
strong winds blew and the storm poured upon 
her, while the dragons struck her to beat her 
down. But all kinds of ferns were leaping up 



LOHIAU 131 

rapidly around the place where the dragons re- 
newed the fight. The ferns twisted and twined 
around the legs and bodies of the dragons. 

Hiiaka shook her magic skirt and struck them 
again and again, and the bodies of these dragons 
were broken in pieces. Then the wind ceased, 
the storm passed away, and the sky became 
clear. But it was almost evening and darkness 
was falling fast. 

The natives have for many years claimed that 
Hiiaka found the time too short to climb the 
precipice, catch the ghost of Lohiau and carry 
it and the body down to the house prepared for 
her work, therefore she uttered this incantation: 

"O gods! Come to Kauai, your land. 
O pearl-eyed warrior (an idol) of Halawa! 
O Kona! guardian of our flesh! 
O the great gods of Hiiaka! 
Come, ascend, descend, 
Let the sun stop over the river of Hea, 
Stand thou still, Osun!" 

The sun waited and its light rested on the 
precipice and pierced the deep shadows of the 
cave in which the body lay while Hiiaka sought 
Lohiau. 

Hiiaka heard the spirit voice saying, ^^ Mov- 
ing, moving, you will find me in a small coconut 
calabash fastened in tight.'' Hiiaka followed 



132 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES . 

the spirit voice and soon saw a coconut closed 
up with feathers. Over the coconut a little 
rainbow was resting. She caught the coconut 
and went back to the body of Lohiau. It 
had become very dark in the cave, but she 
did not care, this was as nothing to her. She 
took the bundle of the body of Lohiau and 
said: "We have the body and the spirit, we 
are ready now to go down to our house." 

Then she called the spirits of the many kinds 
of ferns of Pau-o-palae to take the body down. 
The fern servants of Pau-o-palae carried the 
bundle of the body down to the house. 

Hiiaka said to her friend: '^You ask how the 
spirit can be restored into the body. It is hard 
and mysterious and a work of the gods. We 
must gather all kinds of ferns and maile and 
lehua and flowers from the mountains. We must 
take wai-lua (flowing water) and wai-lani (rain) 
and put them into new calabashes to use in 
washing the body. Then pray. If my prayer 
is not broken [interrupted or a mistake made], 
he will be alive. If the prayer is broken four 
times, life will not return." 

The servants of Pau-o-palae, the goddess 
of ferns, brought all manner of sweet-scented 
ferns, flowers, and leaves to make a bed for 
the body of Lohiau, and to place around the 
inside of the house as fragrant paths by which 



LOHIAU 133 

the gods could come to aid the restoration to 
life. 

There were many prayers, sometimes to one 
class of gods and sometimes to another. The 
following prayer was offered to the au-makuas, 
or ghost-gods, residing' in cloud-land and reveal- 
ing themselves in different cloud forms: 

"Dark is the prayer rising up to Kanaloa, 
Rising up to the ancient home Kealohilani. 
Look at the kupuas above sunset! 
Who are the kupuas above? 
The black dog of the heavens, 
The yellow dog of Ku in the small cloud, 
Ku is in the long cloud, 
Ku is in the short cloud, 
Ku is in the cloud of red spots in the sky. 
Listen to the people of the mountains. 
The friends of the forest, 
The voices of the heavens. 
The water of life runs, life is coming. 
Open with trembling, to let the spirit in, 
A noise rumbling, 
The sound of Ku. 
The lover sent for is coming. 
I, Hiiaka, am coming. 
The lover of my sister Pele, 
The sister of life, 
Is coming to life again. 
Live, Live." 

After each one of the prayers and incantations 
the body was washed in the kind of water needed 



134 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

for each special ceremony. Thus days passed 
by; some legends say ten days, some say a full 
month. At last the body was ready for the in- 
coming of the spirit. 

The coconut shell in which the spirit had 
been kept was held against the body, the feet and 
limbs were slapped, and the body rubbed by 
Wahine-omao while Hiiaka continued her neces- 
sary incantations until the restoration to life 
was complete. 

Many, many days had passed since the fiery 
and impetuous Pele had sent her youngest sister 
after the lover Lohiau. In her restlessness Pele 
had torn up the land in all directions around the 
pit of fire with violent earthquakes. She had 
poured her wrath in burning floods of lava over 
all the southern part of the island. She had 
broken her most solemn promise to Hiiaka. 

Whenever she became impatient at the delay 
of the coming of Lohiau, she would fling her 
scorching smoke and foul gas over Hiiaka's 
beautiful forests — and sometimes would smite 
the land with an overflow of burning lava. 

Sometimes she would look down over that part 
of Puna where Hopoe dwelt and hurl spurts of 
lava toward her home. At last she had yielded 
to her jealous rage and destroyed Hopoe and 
her home and then burned the loved spots of 
restful beauty belonging to Hiiaka. 



LOHIAU 135 

Hiiaka had seen Pele's action as she had looked 
back from tune to time on her journey to Kauai. 
Even while she was bringing Lohiau back to life, 
her love for her own home revealed to her the 
fires kindled by Pele, and she chanted many 
songs of complaint against her unfaithful sister. 

Hiiaka loyally fulfilled her oath until she 
stood with Lohiau on one of the high banks over- 
looking Ka-lua-Pele, the pit of Pele in the volcano 
Kilauea. Down below in the awful majesty 
of fire were the sisters. 

Wahine-omao went down to them as a messen- 
ger from Hiiaka. One of the legends says that 
Pele killed her; another says that she was re- 
pulsed and driven away; others say that Pele 
refused to listen to any report of the journey to 
Kauai and hurled Wahine-omao senseless into a 
hole near the fire-pit, and raved against Hiiaka 
for the long time required in bringing Lohiau. 

Hiiaka at last broke out in fierce rebellion 
against Pele. On the hill where they stood were 
some of the lehua trees with their brilliant red 
blossoms. She plucked the flowers, made wreaths, 
and going close to Lohiau hung them around his 
neck. 

All through the long journey to the crater 
Lohiau had been gaining a full appreciation of 
the bravery, the unselfishness, and the wholly 
lovable character of Hiiaka. He had proposed 



136 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

frequently that they be husband and wife. Now, 
as they stood on the brink of the crater with all 
the proof of Pele's oath-breaking around them 
Hiiaka gave way entirely. She chanted while 
she fastened the flowers tightly around him and 
while her arms were playing around his neck: 

"Hiiaka is the wife. 
Caught in the embrace with the flowers. 
The slender thread is fast. 
Around him the leis from the land of the lehuas are 

fastened. 
I am the wife — The clouds are blown down 
Hiding the sea at Hilo." 

Lohiau had no longer any remnant of affec- 
tion for Pele. Hiiaka had fulfilled her vow and 
Pele had broken all her promises. Lohiau and 
Hiiaka were now husband and wife. Pele had 
lost forever her husband of the long sleep. 

Pele was uncontrollable in her jealous rage. 
One of the legends says that even while Lohiau 
and Hiiaka were embracing each other Pele 
ran up the hill and threw her arms around his 
feet and black lava congealed over them. Then 
she caught his knees and then his body. Lava 
followed every clasp of the arms of Pele, until 
at last his whole body was engulfed in a lava 
flow. His spirit leaped from the body into some 
clumps of trees and ferns not far away. 

Another legend says that Pele sent her brother 



LOHIAU 137 

Lono-makua, with his helpers, to kindle erup- 
tions around Lohiau and Hiiaka. This could 
not harm Hiiaka, for she was at home in the 
worst violence of volcanic flames, but it meant 
death to Lohiau. 

Lono-makua kindled fires all around Lohiau, 
but for a long time refrained from attacking him. 

Hiiaka could not see the pit as clearly as 
Lohiau, so she asked if Pele's fires were coming. 
He chanted : 

"Hot is this mountain of the priest. 
Rain is weeping on the awa. 
I look over the rim of the crater. 
Roughly tossing is the lava below. 
Coming up to the forest — 
Attacking the trees — 
Clouds of smoke from the crater. '' 

The lava came up, surrounding them. Toss- 
ing fountains of lava bespattered them. Wher- 
ever any spot of his body was touched Lohiau 
became stone. He uttered incantations and 
used all his powers as a sorcerer-chief. The lava 
found it difficult to overwhelm him. Pele sent 
increased floods of burning rock upon him. 
Lohiau's body was all turned to stone. His spirit 
fled from the pit to the cool places of a forest on a 
higher part of the surrounding mountains. 

Hiiaka was crazed by the death of Lohiau. 
She had fought against the eruption; now she 



138 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

caught the lava, tore it to pieces, and broke down 
the walls toward the innermost depths of their 
lava home. She began to open the pit for the 
coming of the sea. 

Pele and her sisters were frightened. Pele 
called Wahine-omao from her prison and listened 
to the story of Hiiaka's faithfulness. Chagrined 
and full of self-blame, she told Wahine-omao 
how to restore happiness to her friend. 

Wahine-omao went to Hiiaka and softly 
chanted by the side of the crazy one who was 
breaking up the pit. She told the story of the 
journey after Lohiau and the possibility of seek- 
ing the wandering ghost. 

Hiiaka turned from the pit and sought Lohiau. 
Many were the adventures in ghost-land. At 
last the ghost was found. Lohiau's body was 
freed from the crust of lava and healed and the 
ghost put back in its former home. A second 
time Hiiaka had given life to Lohiau. 

Hiiaka and Lohiau went to Kauai, where, as 
chief and chiefess, they lived happily until real 
death came to Lohiau. 

Then Hiiaka returned to her place in the Pele 
family. It was said that Wahine-omao became 
the wife of Lono-makua, the one kindling vol- 
canic fire. 



THE ANNIHILATION OF KEOUA'S ARMY 139 




XVIII 

THE ANNIHILATION OF KEOUA'S ARMY 

LMOST exactly thirty-four years be- 
fore Kapiolani defied the worship of the 
fire-goddess Pele, Keoua, a high chief, 
lost a large part of his army near the 
volcano Kilauea. This was in November, 1790. 

Ka-lani-opuu had been king over the island 
Hawaii. When he died in 1782, he left the king- 
dom to his son Kiwalao, giving the second place 
to his nephew Kamehameha. 

War soon arose between the cousins. Kame- 
hameha defeated and killed the young king. 
Kiwalao's half-brother Keoua escaped to his 
district Ka-u, on the southwestern side of the 
island. His uncle Keawe-mau-hili escaped to 
his district Hilo on the southeastern side. 

For some years the three factions practically 
let each other alone, although there was desultory 
fighting. Then the high chief of Hilo accepted 
Kamehameha as his king and sent his sons 
to aid Kamehameha in conquering the island 
Maui. 

Keoua was angry with his uncle Keawe-mau- 
hili. He attacked Hilo, killed his uncle and 



I40 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

ravaged Kamehameha^s lands along the north- 
eastern side of the island. 

Kamehameha quickly returned from Maui 
and made an immediate attack on his enemy, 
who had taken possession of a fertile highland 
plain called Waimea. From this method of 
forcing unexpected battle came the Hawaiian 
saying, **The spear seeks Waimea like the wind.'' 

Keoua was defeated and driven through forests 
along the eastern side of Mauna Kea (The white 
mountain) to Hilo. Then Kamehameha sent 
warriors around the western side of the island to 
attack Keoua's home district. Meanwhile, after 
a sea fight in which he defeated the chiefs of the 
islands Maui and Oahu, he set his people to build- 
ing a great temple chiefly for his war-god Ka-ili. 
This was the last noted temple built on all the 
islands. 

Keoua heard of the attack on his home, there- 
fore he gave the fish-ponds and fertile lands of 
Hilo to some of his chiefs and hastened to cross 
the island with his army by way of a path near 
the volcano Kilauea. He divided his warriors 
into three parties, taking charge of the first in 
person. They passed the crater at a time of great 
volcanic activity. A native writer, probably 
Kamakau, in the native newspaper Kuokoa, 
1867, describes the destruction of the central part 
of this army by an awful explosion from Kilauea. 




TWO MAORI GIRLS IN ANCIENT GREETING 



THE ANNIHILATION OF KEOUA'S ARMY 141 

He said: "Thus was it done. Sand, ashes, and 
stones grew up from the pit into a very high 
column of fire, standing straight up. The 
mountains of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa were 
below it. The people even from Ka-wai-hae 
[a seaport on the opposite side of the mountains] 
saw this wonderful column with fire glowing and 
blazing to its very top. When this column be- 
came great it blew all to pieces into sand and 
ashes and great stones, which for some days 
continued to fall around the sides of Kilauea. 
Men, women, and children were killed. Mona, 
one of the army, who saw all this but who escaped, 
said that one of the chiefesses was ill and some 
hundreds of the army had delayed their journey 
to guard her and so escaped this death." 

Dibble, the first among the missionaries to 
prepare a history of the islands, gave the follow- 
ing description of the event: 

"Keoua's path led by the great volcano of 
Kilauea. There they encamped. In the night 
a terrific eruption took place, throwing out flame, 
cinders, and even heavy stones to a great dis- 
tance and accompanied from above with intense 
hghtning and heavy thunder. In the morning 
Keoua and his companions were afraid to proceed 
and spent the day in trying to appease the 
goddess of the volcano, whom they supposed they 
had offended the day before by rolling stones 



142 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

into the crater. But on the second night and 
on the third night also there were similar erup- 
tions. On the third day they ventured to 
proceed on their way, but had not advanced 
far before a more terrible and destructive erup- 
tion than any before took place; an account of 
which, taken from the Hps of those who were 
part of the company and present in the scene, 
may not be an unwelcome digression. 

^The army of Keoua set out on their way in 
three different companies. The company in 
advance had not proceeded far before the ground 
began to shake and rock beneath their feet and 
it became quite impossible to stand. Soon a dense 
cloud of darkness was seen to rise out of the crater, 
and almost at the same instant the electrical 
effect upon the air was so great that the thunder 
began to roar in the heavens and the lightning 
to flash. It continued to ascend and spread 
abroad until the whole region was enveloped 
and the light of day was entirely excluded. 
The darkness was the more terrific, being made 
visible by an awful glare from streams of red 
and blue light variously combined that issued 
from the pit below, and being Ut up at intervals 
by the intense flashes of lightning from above. 
Soon followed an immense volume of sand and 
cinders which were thrown in high heaven and 
came down in a destructive shower for many 



THE ANNIHILATION OF KEOUA'S ARMY 143 

miles around. Some few persons of the forward 
company were burned to death by the sand and 
cinders and others were seriously injured. All 
experienced a suffocating sensation upon the 
lungs and hastened on with all possible speed. 

'The rear body, which was nearest the vol- 
cano at the time of the eruption, seemed to suffer 
the least injury, and after the earthquake and 
shower of sand had passed over, hastened for- 
ward to escape the dangers which threatened 
them, and rejoicing in mutual congratulations 
that they had been preserved in the midst of 
such imminent peril. 

'But what was their surprise and consterna- 
tion when, on coming up with their comrades 
of the centre party, they discovered them 
all to have become corpses. Some were lying 
down, and others sitting upright clasping with 
dying grasp their wives and children and join- 
ing noses (their form of expressing affection) 
as in the act of taking a final leave. So much 
like life they looked that they at first supposed 
them merely at rest, and it was not until they 
had come up to them and handled them that they 
could detect their mistake. Of the whole party, 
including women and children, not one of them 
survived to relate the catastrophe that had be- 
fallen their comrades. The only living being 
they found was a solitary hog, in company with 



144 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

one of the families which had been so suddenly 
bereft of life. In those perilous circumstances, 
the surviving party did not even stay to bewail 
their fate, but, leaving their deceased com- 
panions as they found them, hurried on and 
overtook the company in advance at the place 
of their encampment.' 

^^Keoua and his followers, of whom the nar- 
rator of this scene were a part, retreated in the 
direction they had come. On their return, they 
found their deceased friends as they had left 
them, entire and exhibiting no other marks of 
decay than a sunken hoUowness in their eyes; the 
rest of their bodies was in a state of entire 
preservation. They were never buried, and 
their bones lay bleaching in the sun and rain 
for many years.'' 

A blast of sulphurous gas, a shower of heated 
embers, or a volume of heated steam would 
sufficiently account for this sudden death. 
Some of the narrators who saw the corpses aflSrm 
that, though in no place deeply burnt, yet they 
were thoroughly scorched." 

Keoua's prophets ascribed this blow from the 
gods to their high chief's dislike of Hilo and 
gift to sub-chiefs of the fish-ponds, which were 
considered the favorite food-producers for offer- 
ings to Hiiaka, the youngest member of the 
Pele family. 



THE ANNIHILATION OF KEOUA'S ARMY 145 

Kamehameha's prophets said that this erup- 
tion was the favor of the gods on his temple 
building. 

The people said it was proof that Pele had 
taken Kamehameha under her especial protec- 
tion and would always watch over his interests 
and make him the chief ruler. 




146 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 



XIX 

DESTRUCTION OF KAMEHAMEHA'S 
FISH-PONDS 




OUNT HUALALAI is on the western 
side of the island Hawaii. It has 
been announced as an extinct vol- 
cano because few signs of volcanic 
life appear at present; but in the year 1801 there 
was a very violent eruption from the foQt of the 
mountain, and the expectation of future action 
is so strong that scientists classify Hualalai as 
"active/' 

Ellis, writing in 1824, says: "This eruption of 
1801 poured over several villages, destroyed a 
number of plantations and extensive fish-ponds, 
filled up a deep bay twenty miles in length, and 
formed the present coast. An Englishman who 
saw the eruption has frequently told us that he 
was astonished at the irresistible impetuosity of 
the torrent. Stone walls, trees, and houses all 
gave way before it. Even large masses or rocks 
of ancient lava, when surrounded by the fiery 
stream, soon split into small fragments and fall- 
ing into the burning mass appeared to melt 
again while borne by it down the mountain side. 



KAM EH AM ERA'S FISH PONDS 147 

Numerous offerings were presented and many 
hogs were thrown alive into the stream to ap- 
pease the anger of the gods, by whom they sup- 
posed it was directed, and to stay its devastating 
course. All seemed unavailing until one day 
King Kamehameha went to the flowing lava, 
attended by a large retinue of chiefs and priests, 
and as the most valuable offering he could make, 
cut off part of his own hair which was always 
considered sacred and threw it into the torrent. 
In a day or two the lava ceased to flow. The 
gods, it was thought, were satisfied. The people 
attributed this escape to the influence of Kame- 
hameha with the deities of the volcanoes.^' 

There are several very interesting ^^ blowholes" 
in this lava. When the lava struck the waves, 
the surface and sides were hardened, but the red 
molten mass inside rolled on into the sea. Thus 
many sea-caves were formed, into which waves beat 
violently with every incoming tide. If the shore 
end of a cave broke open, a fine outlet was made 
for the torrents which were hurled up through 
the opening in splendid fountains of spray. 

The account in the Kuokoa, a newspaper pub- 
lished in the native language, in 1867, adds to 
the story of the foreigner the element of super- 
stition, and is practically as follows: 

Pele began to eat Hue-hue, a noted breadfruit * 

* Native ulu =Artocarpus incisa. 



148 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

forest owned by Kamehameha. She was jeal- 
ous of him and angry because he was stingy in 
his offerings of breadfruit from the tabu grove 
of Hue-hue. This was the place where the erup- 
tion broke out. 

After she had destroyed the breadfruit grove, 
she went in her river of fire down to the sea- 
shore to take Kamehameha^s fish-ponds. She 
greatly desired the awa fish with the mullet in 
the fish-pond at Kiholo, and she wanted the aku 
or bonita in the fish-pond at Ka-ele-hulu-hulu. 
She became a roaring flood, widely spread out, 
hungry for the fish. 

Kamehameha was very much ashamed for 
the evil which had come upon the land and the 
destruction of his "fish-ponds. Villages had been 
overwhelmed. Several coconut * groves had 
been destroyed, and lava land was built out into 
the sea. 

There were no priests who could stop this a-a 
eruption by their priestly skill. Their powers 
were dulled in the presence of Pele. They 
offered pigs and fruits of all kinds, throwing 
them into the fire. They uttered all their known 
incantations and prayers. They called to the 
au-makuas (ancestor ghost-gods), but without 
avail. 

Kamehameha sent for Ka-maka-o-ke-akua 

*Cocosnucifera. 



KAMEH AM ERA'S FISH PONDS 149 

(The-eye-of-the-god), one of the prophets of Pele, 
and said: "You are a prophet of Pele. I have 
sent for you because I am much distressed by 
the destruction of the land and the ponds by 
the sea. How can I quiet the anger of Pele?'' 

The prophet bowed his head for a time, then, 
looking up, said, "The anger of the god will 
cease when you offer sacrifice to her." 

The king said, "Perhaps you will take the sacri- 
fice." 

The prophet said: "From the old time even 
until now there has been no prophet or priest 
of the mo-o or dragon clan who has done this 
thing. It would not please the goddess. The 
high chief of the troubled land, with a prophet 
or priest, is the only one who can make peace. 
He must take his own offering to the fire as to an 
altar in a temple. Then the anger of the goddess 
will be satisfied and the trouble ended." 

Kamehameha said: "I am afraid of Pele. 
Perhaps I shall be killed." 

The prophet replied, "You shall not die." 

The king prepared offerings and sacrifices for 
Pele and, as a royal priest, went to the place 
where the lava was still pouring in floods out of 
its new-born crater. 

Kaahumanu, the queen, and many other high 
chiefs and chiefesses thought they would go and 
die with him if Pele should persist in punishing 



ISO LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

him. One of the high chiefesses, Ululani, had 
lost a child some time before. This child after 
death was given to Pele with sacrifices and cere- 
monies which would make it one of the ghost-gods 
connected with the Pele family. 

A prophet told Kaahumanu: ^^The Pele who is 
in the front of this outburst of fire is not strange 
to us. It is the child of Ululani.'' 

Kaahumanu took Ululani with her to the side 
of the lava flow. 

There they saw the lava like a river of fire 
flowing toward the west, going straight down to 
the sea with leaping flames and uplifting foun- 
tains of smoke. There was a very strong flash- 
ing light breaking out at the front of the descend- 
ing lava. 

Ululani asked, '^Who is that very strange fire 
in front of Pele? " The fire was active as if it had 
life in itself. 

The prophet replied: ''That is the child among 
the au-makuas. That is your first-born.'' 

Then came great winds and a mighty storm. 
Houses were overturned and trees blown down. 

Kamehameha and the prophet went up to the 
side of the lava and placed offerings and 
sacrifices in the flowing fire. They prayed to 
Pele, but the fire burned on. Kamehameha 
then cut some of the hair from his head and threw 
it in the fire as his last offering, thus giving him- 








TWISTED LAVA AT THE FOOT OF MT. VESUVIUS, ITALY 



KAMEHAMEHA'S FISH-PONDS 



ISI 



self to the god of fire. Then they came away 
and soon the fire went out. 

It should be remembered that in recent years, 
when a lava flow came down on the city of Hilo, 
threatening its destruction, Princess Ruth, one 
of the last of the Kamehameha family, went from 
Honolulu to Hilo and up to the river of lava with 
the feeling that a Kamehameha who was under 
the especial protection of Pele could intercede 
for the welfare of the people. It is certain that 
she came at a very opportune time, for the erup- 
tion ceased in a day or so. 












XX 

KAPIOLANI AND PELE 

HE story of the high chiefess Kapiolani 
and her conflict with Pele, the goddess 
of Kilauea, in December, 1824, is his- 
toric. It belongs, however, to the vol- 
canoes of the Hawaiian Islands, and is more 
important than any myth. 

Kapiolani was the daughter of Keawe-mau-hili, 
who was the high chief of the district of Hilo. 
He was the uncle of Kiwalao, the young king of 
the island Hawaii, who was killed by Kameha- 
meha's warriors when Kamehameha became king 
of that island. 

Kapiolani as a little child was in the camp with 
her father at the time of the battle. She was in 
danger of death, but some men carried her over 



KAPIOLANI AND PELE 153 

the mountains through a multitude of difficulties 
back to Hilo. She became a tall, portly woman, 
with keen black eyes and an engaging counte- 
nance, a queen in appearance when with other 
chiefs or chiefesses. She was not a queen, nor 
was she even a princess, although by blood 
relationship she belonged to the royal family. 
She was the wife of Na-ihe, who was the high chief 
of the district of Kona on the western side of the 
island Hawaii. 

Na-ihe (The spears) was said to be the national 
orator or best speaker on government affairs 
among the chiefs. Kapiolani (The-bending-arch- 
of-heaven) was very intelligent, quick-witted, 
and fearless. They were both so influential 
that they were chosen by the great Kamehameha 
as members of his council of chiefs and were re- 
tained by his son Liholiho, or Kamehameha II. 

When the missionaries of the American Board 
from Boston arrived, April 4, 1820, at Kailua 
Bay on the western coast of Hawaii, they landed 
in territory nominally controlled by Na-ihe and 
Kapiolani, although at that particular time the 
young king, Liholiho, and his court were in 
Kona, and were the real rulers. 

However, when the missionaries had reduced 
the language to writing and had begun to print 
leaflets for spelling and reading, in 1822, Na-ihe 
and Kapiolani were among the first chiefs to 



154 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

welcome instruction and accept Christianity as 
far as they could understand it. 

In 1823 a delegation of missionaries went around 
the island Hawaii. They visited the volcano 
Kilauea and wrote the first really good descrip- 
tion of the crater and its activity. The natives 
were astonished to see the perfect safety of the 
missionaries, although the worship and tabus 
of Pele were absolutely ignored. Ohelo* berries 
and strawberries growing on the brink of the 
crater were freely eaten and the lake of fire ex- 
plored without even a thought of fear of the god- 
dess. 

In the course of their journey the missionaries 
met a priestess of Pele. The priestess, assuming 
a haughty air, said: ^^I am Pele, I shall never die. 
Those who follow me, if part of their bones are 
taken to Kilauea, will live in the bright fire 
there.'' A missionary said, ^^Are you Pele?'' 
She said, *^Yes, I am Pele," then proceeded to 
state her powers. A chief of low rank who had 
been a royal messenger under Kamehameha, 
and who was making the journey with the mis- 
sionaries, interrupted the woman, saying: ^^Then 
it is true, you are Pele, and have destroyed the 
land, killed the people, and have spoiled the 
fishing-grounds. If I were the king I would throw 
you into the sea." The priestess was quick- 

* Vaccinium penduliformis — var. reticulatum. 



KAPIOLANI AND PELE 155 

witted and said that truly she had done some 
harm, but the rum of the foreigners was far more 
destructive. 

All this prepared the way for Kapiolani to 
attempt to break down the worship of the fire- 
goddess. It must be remembered that Kapiolani 
had been under the influence of thoughtful civi- 
lization only about three years when she decided 
that she would attack the idolatry which, of all 
idol worship, was the most firmly entrenched 
in the hearts of her people because it was founded 
on the mysterious forces of nature. She ac- 
cepted implicitly the word of the missionaries, 
that their God was the one god of nature. There- 
fore she had rejected the fire-goddess with all the 
other deities formerly worshipped in Hawaii. 
She was, however, practically alone in her deter- 
mination to strike a blow against the worship of 
Pele. 

Priests of Pele were nxmierous on the island 
Hawaii. Women were among those of highest 
rank in that priesthood. Many of the per- 
sonal followers of Kapiolani were worshippers. 
Even Na-ihe, her husband, had not been able to 
free himself from superstitious fears. When 
Kapiolani said that she was going to prove the 
falsity of the worship of Pele, there was a storm 
of heartfelt opposition. The priests and wor- 
shippers of Pele honestly believed that divine 



IS6 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

punishment would fall on her. Those who were 
Christians were afraid that some awful explosion 
might overwhelm the company, as a large body 
of warriors had been destroyed thirty-four years 
before. 

Na-ihe, still strongly under the influence of 
superstition, urged her not to go. All this 
opposition arose from her warm friends. When 
her determination was seen to be immovable, 
some of the priests of Pele became bitterly 
angry and in their rage prophesied most awful 
results. 

When Kapiolani left her home in Kona her 
people, with great wailing, again attempted to 
persuade her to stay with them. The grief, 
stimulated by fear of things supernatural, was 
uncontrollable. The people followed their chief- 
ess some distance with prayers and tears. 

For more than a hundred miles she journeyed, 
usually walking, sometimes having a smooth 
path, but again having to cross miles of the 
roughest, most rugged and sharp-edged lava 
on the island Hawaii. At last the party came to 
the vicinity of the volcano. This was not by the 
present road, but along the smoother, better 
way, used for centuries on the south side of the 
crater toward the ocean. 

Toward the close of the day they crossed 
steaming cracks and chasms and drew nearer 



KAPIOLANI AND PELE 157 

to the foul-smelling, gaseous clouds of smoke 
which blew toward them from the great crater. 
Here a priestess of Pele of the highest rank came 
to meet the party and turn them away from the 
dominions of the fire-goddess unless they would 
offer appropriate sacrifices. She knew Kapio- 
lani's purpose, and determined to frustrate it. 

Formerly there had been a temple near the 
brink of the crater on the southeast side. This, 
according to Ellis, bore the name Oala-laua. 
He says, "It was a temple of Pele, of which 
Ka-maka-a-ke-akua (The-eye-of-God), a distin- 
guished soothsayer who died in the reign of 
Kamehameha, was many years priest." The 
temple was apparently deserted at the time of the 
overthrow of the tabu in 1819, and the priests had 
gone to the lower and better cultivated lands of 
Puna, where they had their headquarters. 
However, they still worshipped Pele and sacri- 
ficed to her. 

This priestess who faced Kapiolani was very 
haughty and bold. She forbade her to approach 
any nearer to the volcano on pain of death at 
the hands of the furious goddess Pele. 

"Who are you?'' asked Kapiolani. 

"I am one in whom the God dwells." 

"If God dwells in you, then you are wise and 
can teach me. Come and sit down." 

The priestess had seen printed pages or heard 



IS8 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

about them, so she drew out a piece of kapa, or 
paper made from the bark of trees,* and saying 
that this was a letter from Pele began to read or 
rather mumble an awful curse. 

The people with Kapiolani were hushed into a 
terrified silence, but she listened quietly until the 
priestess, carried beyond her depth, read a con- 
fused mass of jumbled words, and imintelUgible 
noises, which she called ^^The dialect of the an- 
cient Pele.'' 

Then Kapiolani took her spelling-book, and a 
little book of a few printed hymns, and said: 
^^You have pretended to deliver a message from 
your god, but we have not understood it. Now I 
will read you a message which you can under- 
stand, for I, too, have a letter." Then she read 
clearly the Bibhcal sentences printed in the 
spelling-book and some of the hymns. The 
priestess was silenced. 

Meanwhile, the missionaries at Hilo, a hundred 
and fifty miles from Kona, heard that Kapiolani 
had started on this strenuous undertaking. They 
felt that some one of the Christian teachers should 
be with her. Mr. Ruggles had been without 
shoes for several months and could not go. Mr. 
Goodrich, the other missionary stationed at 
Hilo, was almost as badly off, but was more ac- 

* Plants used for kapa were wauke, oiona, mamaki, poulu, akala, 
hau, maaloa, and the mulberry. 



KAPIOLANI AND PELE 159 

customed to travelling barefoot. So he went 
up through the tangled masses of sharp-edged 
lava, grass, strong-leaved ferns, and thick woods 
to meet the chiefess as she came to the crater. 

Kapiolani passed the priestess, went on to the 
crater, met Mr. Goodrich, and was much affected 
by the effort he had made to aid her in her attempt 
to break down the worship of Pele. It was now 
evening, and a hut was built to shelter her until 
the next day came, when she could have the op- 
portunity of descending into the crater. 

Mr. Richards, a missionary, later wrote as fol- 
lows: '^ Along the way to the volcano she was 
accosted by multitudes and entreated not to 
proceed. She answered, 'If I am destroyed, 
then you may all believe in Pele, but if I am not, 
you must all turn to the true writings.'" 

The great crater at that time had a black 
ledge or shelf, below which the active lakes and 
fountains of fire, in many places, broke through 
and kept turbulent a continually changing mass 
over five miles in circumference. Here in the 
large cones built up by leaping lava, the natives 
said, were the homes of the family of Pele. Here 
the deities amused themselves in games. The 
roaring of the furnaces and crackling of flames 
was the music of drimis beaten for the accom- 
paniment of the household dances. The red 
flaming surge was the surf wherein they played. 



l6o LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

As the morning light brought a wonderful 
view of the Lua Pele (The-pit-of-Pele) with 
its great masses of steam and smoke rising 
from the immense field of volcanic activity 
below, and as the rush of mighty waves of lava 
broke again and again against the black ledge 
with a roar exceeding that of a storm-driven 
surf beating upon rocky shores, and as fierce 
explosions of gases bursting from the under- 
world in a continual cannonade, deafened the 
ears of the company, Kapiolani prepared to 
go down to defy Pele. 

This must have been one of the few grand 
scenes of history. There was the strong, brave 
convert to Christianity standing above the 
open lake of fire, the red glowing lava rolling 
in waves below, with rough blocks of hardened 
lava on every side, the locks (Pele's hair) of the 
fire-goddess, torn out and whirling around in 
the air, the timid fearful faces of the people and 
their attitude of terror and anxiety showing the 
half-hope that the tabu might be broken and 
the half-dread lest the evil spirit might breathe 
fire upon them and destroy them at once. 

Mr. Richards says: ^^A man whose duty 
it was to feed Pele, by throwing berries and the 
like into the volcano, entreated her to go no 
farther. ^And what,' said she, ^will be the 
harm?' The man replied, *You will die by 




SMOKE COLUMN OVER MT. PELEE, MARTINIQUE, 1902 
(3 miles high) 



KAPIOLANI AND PELE i6l 

Pele.' Kapiolani answered, ^I shall not die 
by your god. That fire was kindled by my 
God.' The man was silent and she went on- 
ward, descending several hundred feet, and 
there joined in a prayer to Jehovah. She also 
ate the berries consecrated to Pele, and threw 
stones into the volcano.'' 

Bingham in his '^Sandwich Islands" says: 
*^Then with the terrific bellowing and whizzing 
of the volcanic gases they mingled their voices 
in a solemn hymn of praise to the true God, and 
at the instance of the chiefess, Alapai, one of 
Kapiolani's attendants, led them in prayer." 

The party returned to the brink of the crater, 
and journeyed down to Hilo. 

Alexander in the ^^ History of the Hawaiian 
People" says, '^This has justly been called 
one of the greatest acts of moral courage ever 
performed." 

Richards states that the leader of Kapiolani's 
party said to him: ^^AU the people of the dis- 
trict saw that she was not injured and have 
pronounced Pele to be powerless." 

The influence of Kapiolani against this most 
influential form of idolatrous worship was felt 
throughout the whole nation. 

In 1836, twelve years later. Rev. Titus Coan 
wrote about the coming of many natives into 
a Christian life. He says: ^^In 1836, twelve 



l62 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

years after the visit of Kapiolani, among these 
converts was the High Priest of the volcano. 
He was more than six feet tall, and was of lofty 
bearing. He had been an idolater, a drunkard, 
an adulterer, a robber, and a murderer. His 
sister was more haughty and stubborn. She, 
too, was tall and majestic in her bearing. At 
length she yielded and with her brother became 
a docile member of the church." 

But it was Lord Tennyson who set down for 
posterity the heroic deed of the great queen in 
the following beautiful poem: 




KAPIOLANI AND PELE 163 




KAPIOLANI. 



When from the terrors of Nature a people have 

fashion'd and worship a Spirit of Evil 
Blest be the Voice of the Teacher who calls to 
them, 
"Set yourselves free!" 

n. 

Noble the Saxon who hurled at his Idol a valorous 

weapon in olden England! 
Great, and greater, and greatest of women, island 

heroine Kapiolani 
Clomb the mountain, and flung the berries and 

dared the Goddess, and freed the people 
Of Hawa-i-ee ! 

III. 

A people believing that Peele the Goddess would 
wallow in fiery riot and revel 
On Kilauea, 
Dance in a fountain of flame with her devils or 
shake with her thunders and shatter her 
island, 
Rolling her anger 

Thro' blasted valley and flowing forest in blood-red 
cataracts down to the sea! 



l64 LEGENDS OF VOLCANOES 

IV. 

Long as the lava-light 

Glares from the lava-lake, 

Dazing the starlight; 
Long as the silvery vapor in daylight, 

Over the mountain 
Floats, will the glory of Kapiolani be mingled with 
either on Hawa-i-ee. 

V. 

What said her Priesthood? 

"Woe to this island if ever a woman should handle 

or gather the berries of Peele! 
Accursed were she! 
And woe to this island if ever a woman should 

climb to the dwelling of Peele the Goddess ! 
Accursed were she!" 

VI. 

One from the Sunrise 

Dawned on His people and slowly before him 

Vanished shadow-like 

Gods and Goddesses, 
None but the terrible Peele remaining as Kapiolani 

Ascended her mountain. 
Baffled her priesthood. 

Broke the Taboo, 

Dipt to the crater, 
Called on the Power adored by the Christian and 

crying, "I dare her, let Peele avenge herself!" 
Into the flame-billows dashed the berries, and drove 
the demon from Hawa-i-ee. 



PART II 
GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

Note: The following articles pertaining to the geo- 
logical formation of the Hawaiian Islands were written 
by the author at different times for the various local periodi- 
cals in Honolulu and will be found interesting by those 
who wish to increase their knowledge of volcanology.) 



THE CRACK IN THE FLOOR OF THE 
PACIFIC 

GEOLOGICAL or earthquake map of 
the Pacific shows that the ocean is 
bordered by ranges of volcanic moun- 
tains on the American side, and by a 
long chain of volcanic islands, such as the Aleu- 
tian, Japanese, and Formosa islands along the 
coast of Asia. It is also clear that between 
America and Asia connected islands built up by 
volcanic action follow what appear to be cracks 
in the floor of the Pacific. 

It is interesting to note the fact that all along 
the western coast of North and South America 
there is only a comparatively narrow strip of 




l66 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

land between the mountain ranges and the sea, 
and that from the edge of this narrow seacoast 
there is a rapid descent in the ocean bed until 
it becomes one of the most profound oceanic de- 
pressions on the globe. The depth of the floor 
of the ocean is greater than the enormous eleva- 
tion of the mountain ranges along its edge. ^^ The 
Challenger" surveyors give the average depth of 
the Pacific Ocean as about 2,400 fathoms, while 
between the Caroline and Ladrone groups of 
islands lies a valley whose ooze-carpeted floor 
can be reached only by a sounding Une about 
25,000 feet long, and near Japan about 30,000 
feet of line is needed to reach the bottom of one 
of the deepest pits on the globe. 

The German survey ship *^ Planet'^ has made 
the deepest sounding thus far taken. About 
forty sea miles off the north coast of Mindanao, 
the largest and most southerly of the important 
islands of the Philippines, the "Planet'' found 
a depth of 32,078 feet. In other words, the 
Pacific Ocean where the sounding was taken has 
a depth of 6.07 miles, exceeding by 482 feet the 
greatest depth hitherto known. 

In 1901 the United States survey ship "Nero,'' 
while studying out a route for a cable line to the 
Philippines, made a sounding some distance to 
the southeast of the island of Guam of 31,596 
feet, which beat the world's record for sea depth 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 167 

up to that time. This is a depth of 5.98 miles, 
and is known as the *^Nero'' deep. The surpass- 
ing sea depth now discovered may appropriately 
be named the "Planet'' deep. 

Out of these awful ocean depths have come 
the chains and groups of islands which form 
Polynesia. It seems absolutely necessary to 
recognize the cracks in the floor of the ocean 
through which the vast floods of lava were forced 
for the upbuilding of these islands. Even the 
coral polyps had to have the edge of a crater 
to work on while building the innumerable coral 
reefs of the Pacific. 

No one knows what mighty conflicts were 
fought between the two eternal enemies, fire and 
water; nor does anyone know how long they 
fought while these islands were being built into 
mountains, but there must have been ages when 
the skies were filled with rolling masses of clouds 
of steam sent up through boiling, turbulent waters 
with awful explosions of escaping gases before 
the dry land appeared on the face of the deep. 
It has been the modern story of creation. There 
were boiUng seas and skies always covered with 
vast masses of steam clouds, then ages of moun- 
tain building at the hands of chaotic fire-rock, 
and the subsequent ages of the disintegration 
of lava, forming soil for the coming of plant and 
animal life. 



1 68 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

The building of these islands has been a most 
stupendous task, and the chains of islands re- 
sulting from the tremendous volcanic energy still 
exhibit immense activity. The volcanic out- 
breaks and earthquakes of the Japanese islands 
from Nippon to Formosa are so frequent as to 
afford an excellent field for study. The New 
Zealand islands have a volcanic region around 
Roturua which is visited by numbers of tourists 
every year. 

Islands appear and disappear in the Western 
Pacific. None of the islands have so good a tra- 
dition of these turbulent times as the Hawaiian 
group, and they have only a statement made by 
William Ellis in his book, "A Tour through 
Hawaii," published in 1826. He says that while 
on this tour around the island Hawaii, he stopped 
with John Young, who is now stated to have 
been an American sailor and a close friend of 
the great king Kamehameha I. *^Mr. Young 
said that among many traditionary accounts of 
the origin of the island, one was that in former 
times, when there was nothing but sea, an im- 
mense bird settled on the water and laid an egg 
which soon bursting produced the island Hawaii.'* 

It must be remembered that the Hawaiians also 
have the pulling up of the islands with a fish- 
hook by the demi-god Maui, who fished up many 
islands in Polynesia. 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 



169 



It has been nearly a hundred years since Ellis 
made the brief reference to the production of 
an island by the explosion of the egg, and now it 
is impossible to secure any enlargement of the 
legend. The story stands as an ancient mem- 
ory of volcanic activity so mighty and so ex- 
tensive as to produce islands in the time of 
human experience. 




I70 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 




II 

HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES 

ACH island has its extinct craters from 
which extend the Hmited ranges of 
mountains and plains which make the 
island surface. These large craters are 
from a few hundred to over thirteen thousand 
feet in altitude. They seem to have had mighty 
explosions after they had been built into 
mountains, and one side of the crater has 
usually been blown out or has slid down into 
the ocean, leaving very high, steep side walls 
around irregularly shaped valleys opening toward 
the sea. 

In these craters and between them and the 
sea are many small craters which mark the most 
recent eruptions on the various islands. There 
are no legends of the origin of any of these 
large craters, whether extinct or active. There 
are very interesting stories connected with 
many of them, and there are legends of the origin 
of some of the small extinct craters which lie 
at the bases of the mountain ranges. These 
usually are ascribed to the fire-goddess Pele, 
who came to the Hawaiian group ages after the 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 171 

islands were built, and who only succeeded in 
starting eruptions of no great importance until 
she found her present home in the volcano 
Kilauea. These small extinct craters marked 
the progress of Pele's journey through the islands. 

The large mountains of all the islands, except 
Hawaii, have no hot springs and no outlets 
for steam or hot air which would indicate any 
remnant of living fire still abiding in them. 
Nor are there any very noticeable earthquake 
shocks in these other islands, even at the time 
when the island Hawaii is pouring floods of 
lava down its mountain sides and is shaking 
its inhabitants with great force. 

Open volcanic activity is confined to the moun- 
tains of Hawaii. The mountains of Maui, espe- 
cially Hale-a-ka-la, are called active because of 
historic eruptions and signs of hidden fire. 

The extinct craters are very interesting. 
They have their broken-down side wall, through 
which the last great effort of volcanic life was 
poured out. They also have crater cones and 
sometimes lava flows of small extent on the 
floor left by the great eruption. These were 
the picturesque last throbs of life as a volcano 
died. Occasional spasmodic efforts were made 
in both earthquake and lava flow until the 
fire cooled in the submarine chambers. 

From the summits of all these mountains, 



172 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

peculiarly fine cloud views can be enjoyed. 
There is not only the gathering of cloud masses 
rolling beneath the lover of the sublime, — this 
can be seen on all the large mountains of the 
world, — but here in the Hawaiian Islands the 
march of cloud armies sweeping over an ocean 
and spreading in ceaseless motion for miles 
over the lowlands receives an added element 
of majesty and awe when tossing, whirling 
cloud mountains roll into the extinct craters 
and slowly fill the bowl of the gods from rim 
to rim as the morning sun delicately touches 
the crater edges above the clouds with all the 
colors of the dawn. 

Here and there in the decaying volcanic 
ash and disintegrating lava can sometimes be 
found beautiful, small, star-rayed zeolite, or the 
pale green olivine, or coarse black augite crystals. 
These are of no value, save as they show some 
of the forms taken by cooling lava, and are of 
interest chiefly to the scientist. 

On the island Hawaii are three great mountains 
from 8,200 to 13,600 feet above the ocean, 
which smashes its mighty tides and surf waves 
against the coast below. One of these, Mauna 
Kea (White Mountain), is an extinct volcano 
with a lake of water in its crater. Hualalai 
is dormant, although from it there was a great 
eruption a little over a hundred years ago, and 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 173 

even now possibilities of activity are talked about 
by those who cultivate sugar-cane and coffee 
on its lower slopes. Mauna Loa (Great or long 
mountain) has a most interesting active crater 
on its summit, Mokuaweoweo (Blood-red island), 
from which enormous rivers of lava are hurled 
down to the waiting ocean many miles below. 

What is said to be the most active crater in 
the world, Kilauea, lies on an eastern spur of 
Mauna Loa at an elevation of 4,000 feet above 
the sea. This crater is a great caldron or pit 
crater, and has been known among the Hawaiians 
for centuries as Ka-Lua Pele (The Pit of Pele). 
Below Kilauea are a number of craters of similar 
character, great sunken holes or pits in a country 
of almost even surface. 

Kilauea is a surprise to the tourist. Ki-lau-ea 
means ^Hhe rising up or living leaf of the ti- 
plant.'' Ea means ^Ho rise up" and also 'Ho 
live." Ki-lau means 'Hi- leaf." A gradual 
ascent by rail and motor-car for about thirty 
miles brings the visitor to a flat region miles 
in extent and sparsely covered with giant ferns * 
and shrubs and gray-leaved trees with fringed 
red balls of flowers. Here and there small 
clouds of steam come from crevices around a 
hotel where the traveller finds his resting-place. 

In front of this hotel, and not seen until the 

*Tree fern — Cibotium Menziesii. 



174 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

motor-car stops, is the crater whose edges are 
ahnost level with the surrounding plain. It is 
a precipice-walled bowl, three miles across, 
with a multitude of steam jets breaking through 
its vast floor and a great cloud of smoke rising 
from a pit in a black border-land of frozen lava. 
Kilauea looks like a congealed lake whose glossy 
black hard waves had hardened while rolling 
and struggling with each other under some fierce 
tempest. It is, however, a cone ascending 
gradually to the fire-pit from these precipitous 
edges of the bowl. 

Under the smoke cloud of the pit lies the 
always active lake of fire, Ka-Lua Pele (The Pit 
of Pele), the traditional home of the goddess 
Pele, now called Halemaumau (House fixed or 
continuing). 

From this volcano Kilauea, and the crater 
Mokuaweoweo, which lies like an island in the 
top of Mauna Loa, nearly 10,000 feet higher, 
come enormous and sometimes destructive lava 
flows. They are called rivers of lava, but a lava 
river, unlike a stream of water, flows underneath 
a continually cooling and hardening crumpled 
surface, pushing its way from under and at last 
leaving long tunnels. Sometimes new lava 
melts through the walls of these caves and pours 
along the path left ages before, frequently finding 
an outlet even under the waves of the sea. The 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 175 

natives say, ''Pele has gone to the sea by the 
ala huna [the hidden path].'' 

There are two kinds of lava which these rivers 
carry down. One in cooling becomes very smooth 
and hard. Its surface shines like black satin. 
Professor C. H. Hitchcock, the eminent geologist, 
says: *^The name pa-hoe-hoe signifies having 
the aspect of satin or having a shining smooth 
surface. It is quite hunamocky and shows a 
wrinkled ropy structure." The glossy part is 
real volcanic glass shining on the surface because 
the silica which is used in making glass rises to 
the top of the cooling lava. It is lighter than 
the other ingredients. This pa-hoe-hoe lava is 
abundant in the lava fields around Mexico City. 

The name a-a, which signifies ^Horn up by 
roots,'' is the name given to another kind of lava. 
An a-a flow is lava changed into bristling, ragged 
rocks, with innumerable fine sharp edges cutting 
like fragments of broken glass. It appears very 
much like slag from iron furnaces, only infinitely 
worse to handle. 

These two Hawaiian names are now the ac- 
cepted scientific names for these classes of lava 
the world over. 

In 191 1 the first successful attempt to secure 
the temperature of the boiling lava in the lake 
of fire was made scientifically. Professor F. G. 
Perret came from his observatory by Vesuvius 



176 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

and Professor E. G. Shepherd from the Geo- 
physical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution 
at Washington, to study Kilauea, following the 
beginning of such observations already estab- 
lished by Professor Jaggar of the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology. 

They stretched a wire cable 1,500 feet long 
from wall to wall over the lake of fire. They ran 
wires through pulleys along this cable and 
dropped the best instruments they had with them 
straight down. Some of these were broken 
before registration could be secured. The last 
thermometer registered 1850° Fahrenheit, re- 
maining steadily at that point until the ther- 
mometer was withdrawn. Later it was again 
lowered, but, according to Professor Shepherd, 
*^Pele arose in her wrath, grasped the thermome- 
ter, flung hot lava on the supporting wires, 
thereby weakening them, and then with a final 
jerk broke the thermometer from its supports 
and swallowed it. Pele seems to like ironware 
for diet." 

The record of from 1800° to 2000° Fahrenheit 
seems to be the normal heat of the lake of fire, 
sometimes, of course, rising much higher under 
special conditions. The scientific observers when 
speaking of lava heat usually say it is 1850° 
Fahrenheit. 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 177 



III 
VOLCANIC ACTIVITY 




N a little note-book in Hilo is a record 
which from time to time has been studied 
and copied frequently by visiting scien- 
tists. The missionary mother who put 
down the facts therein recorded never dreamed 
of being scientific. She simply kept a record. 
In 1832 Mrs. Sarah J. Lyman came to Hilo, 
where her husband founded the Hilo Boys' 
Boarding School, a school, by the way, after 
which the great Hampton Institute of Virginia 
was patterned. On October 3, 1833, she was 
tossed around in her home in a way somewhat 
alarming. She opened her little note-book and 
wrote, ^*Two earthquakes, one of them heavy.'' 
She had a little curiosity to see how frequently 
these earthquakes disturbed her home. Thus 
the record went on from month to month and 
year to year: ^^ Earthquake, motion up and 
down," ^* Heavy shake, stone walls down, cream 
shaken ofif the milk," ^^4 a.m., all the family 
aroused," ^^ Jar and a noise like distant cannon," 
^^ Tremendous shock, brace ourselves to stand 
up," ^ ' Kai-mimiki " (sea shaken by an earth- 



178 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

quake), '^All motions combined, earth like the 
sea." At one time the record ran: *^ Frequent 
jars, severe, so many I have ceased to count." 

Interspersed through this concise and interest- 
ing story of earthquakes told in a few word 
pictures are many references to other volcanic 
phenomena. ^^ Activity great in Mokuaweoweo. 
Mountain clear for several days, the smoke is 
marked, light brilliant at night, snow extensive 
on both mountains." 

The year 1868 has been marked as the volcano 
year of Hawaiian history. Mr. F. S. Lyman, 
now living in Hilo, wrote a journal letter, which 
was quoted in full. He writes as follows about 
the earthquake: 

^^March 27-31, 1868. A sudden eruption from 
Mauna Loa, no forewarning, a spray of red lava 
thrown high in the air, followed by a great 
stream of smoke rising up thousands of feet. In 
Kau we had quite a sprinkling of Pele's hair, 
peculiar earthquakes — first hard shakes, then a 
swaying motion, as if the whole island were 
swaying back and forth and we with it. March 
31 — From about 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. the shaking was 
incessant. Thursday, April 2nd. We experi- 
enced the most fearful of earthquakes. The 
earth swayed north, south, east, west, round and 
round, up and down, and in every imaginable 
direction, everything crashing around us, trees 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 179 

thrashing as if torn by a mighty wind, impossible 
to stand. We had to sit on the ground, bracing 
with hands and feet, to keep from roUing over." 

Mr. H. M. Whitney, editor of the Advertiser, 
says that ^Hhe number of shocks which occurred 
at Waiohinu from March 29 to April 10 was 
estimated at upwards of two thousand. The 
heaviest shock, that of April 2d, destroyed every 
church and nearly every dwelling in the whole 
district. This earthquake was felt very sensibly 
in Honolulu. Following the earthquake came a 
great tidal wave at Punaluu. It rolled in over 
the tops of coconut trees, probably sixty feet 
high at least, driving all floating rubbish inland 
about a quarter of a mile — taking with it, when 
it returned to the sea, houses, men, and women 
and everything movable." 

Mr. Lyman wrote: *^We could see the shore. 
All along the seashore from directly below us to 
Punaluu about three or four miles the sea was 
boiling and foaming furiously, all red." 

Two remarkable eruptions accompanied this 
earthquake. The lava, starting from the slope 
of Mauna Loa, sank into some great channel but 
'^ burst forth with a heavy roar several miles 
farther down. The lava stream became a river 
of fire, flowing rapidly tow^ard and around some 
farmhouses. The inmates had barely time to 
escape. The path by which they fled was cov- 



i8o GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

ered with lava within ten minutes after they 
passed over it. Animals and even human beings 
perished. The number of deaths were between 
eighty and one hundred. This eruption flowed 
ten miles in two hours, and continued five days, 
destroying many thousands of acres of good 
lands." The second remarkable eruption was 
nearer the crater Kilauea and has been known as 
^^The Great Mud Flow of 1868.'' It is in the 
region covered by the Pahala plantation. 

Mr. Lyman writes: ^^In the midst of the great 
earthquake we saw burst out from the top of the 
pali about a mile and a half north of us, what we 
supposed to be an immense river of molten lava 
(which afterward proved to be red earth), which 
rushed down in headlong course and across the 
plain below, apparently bursting from the ground 
and swallowing up everything in its way — trees, 
houses, cattle, horses, men, in an instant as it 
were. It went three miles in not more than three 
minutes' time and then stopped. After the hard 
shaking had ceased we went right over to a hill 
with the children and our natives expecting every 
moment to be swallowed up by the lava from be- 
neath, for it sounded as if it were surging and 
washing under our feet all the time. Outside of 
Punaluu we saw a long black point of lava slowly 
pushing out to sea. An island about four hun- 
dred feet high rose out of the sea at the south 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS i8i 

point. The lava river has extended the shore to 
this island one mile at least." 

Mrs. Lyman wrote: ^^Jan. 30, 1875. Light 
exceedingly brilliant. Perpendicular column of 
smoke over 1,000 feet high on the summit crater 
spreading out at top like an expanding flower.'' 
This august glow was described by members of 
the ^ Challenger'' expedition as ^^a globular cloud 
perpetually reformed by condensation, having a 
brilliant orange glow at night as if a fire were 
raging in the distance." 

This display from the summit of Mauna Loa 
continued about eighteen months. 

Isabella Bird Bishop, author of ^'Six Months 
in the Sandwich Islands," visited this active 
crater in 1874, and wrote about the crater itself. 
^^ Nearly opposite us a fountain of pure yellow 
fire, unlike the gory gleam of Kilauea, was 
throwing up its glorious incandescence. The 
sunset gold was not purer than the living fire. 
The roar of this surging lava sea was a glorious 
sound, the roar of an ocean at dispeace mingled 
with the hollow murmur of surf echoing in sea 
caves, booming on, rising and falling like the 
thunder music of windward Hawaii. The area 
below us was over two miles long and a mile 
and a half wide with precipitous sides and a 
broad second shelf about 300 feet below the one 
we occupied with a fire fountain three-quarters 



1 82 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

of a mile away. On the way up the mountain 
there was a fearful internal throbbing and 
rumbling, rocks and masses of soil were dis- 
lodged, the earth reeled, then rocked again with 
such violence that I felt as if the horse and my- 
self had gone over." 

During these months of 1874-1875 there were 
magnificent exhibitions of clouds reflecting vol- 
canic fires caused by the upburst of lava fountains. 

The summit crater of Mauna Loa is about 
13,000 feet altitude. Snow has frequently cov- 
ered the top of the mountain, lying in deep 
banks around the edge of the crater. The cold 
has acted quickly upon the lake of fire, con- 
gealing a large part of the surface into a hard 
floor of lava. Gases, steam, and smoke lift 
this floor and break through it with great vio- 
lence, escaping from the melted lava in pillars 
of cloud against which the fires beneath mirror 
themselves in glorious displays of color. These 
outbursts were frequently called eruptions. The 
modern name is more correct. They are ^ ' glows,'' 
reflecting wonderful fires beneath. 

Mrs. Lyman mentions another eruption from 
the summit of Mauna Loa. ^^1877. Feb. 14. 
Eruption seen on the mountain. Ten days ex- 
tinct then broke out lower down the mountain 
and reached the sea in a few days, near Kaawa- 
loa, Kealakekua Bay.'' 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 183 

Dana says, ^^The columns of illuminated 
steam rose with fearful speed to a height of 
14,000 to 17,000 feet and then spread out into 
a vast fiery cloud looking at night as if the 
heavens were on fire.'' 

After this, there was an underground erup- 
tion to the sea marked by a fissure dow^n the 
mountain side through which clouds of steam 
and smoke were forced. The lava at last found 
its place for escape under the sea. 

H. M. Whitney, the editor of the Hawaiian 
Gazette, w^as a witness of this submarine erup- 
tion. In the issue of Feb. 28, 1877, he wrote: 
^^As the steamer Kilauea came toward the bay, 
the passengers saw some canoes rowing about 
over boihng water. The natives reported that 
about three o'clock in the morning of Feb. 24, 
they had seen innumerable red, blue, and green 
lights dancing in the waters. Morning disclosed 
a new volcano in the sea. The southern shore 
of the bay has been known as Keei point. The 
eruption appeared to be in a straight line out 
from this point. Three boats from the steamer 
went out, cruising over the most active part of 
the boiling waters, appearing as if passing over 
rapids. Blocks of lava two feet across were 
thrown up from beneath, striking the boats and 
jarring them. The lava was quite soft and no 
harm was done. Six stones hit the boat in one 



i84 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

minute. Several hundred pieces of these stones 
were floating on the sea at one time. Nearly- 
all the pieces on reaching the surface were red 
hot, emitting steam and gas strongly sulphurous. 
Several were taken into the boats, perfectly in- 
candescent and so molten in the interior that the 
lava could be stirred with a stick, the water 
having penetrated only about an inch. When 
these stones cooled and became water soaked 
they sank rapidly. The specimens taken from 
the water were of the a-a variety and very light. 
Probably only the lightest came to the surface. 
Some of the lava consisted of Pele's hair, red hot, 
yet preserving its peculiar characteristics.'' 

Mrs. Lyman has the record of a terrible tidal 
wave which struck Hilo harbor in May of that 
same year: ^'1877, May 10. A heavy tidal 
wave at 5 a.m., destroying 34 houses on the 
Waiakea side of the harbor, also the bridge and 
twelve houses between Waialama and Aiko's 
old store. One hundred and sixty people home- 
less, some bruised, bones broken, five dead. 
Wave was thirteen and a half feet above high 
water mark at Waiakea, swept inland forty rods, 
accurate measurement.'' Following this on May 
31, came the record '^severe shake, things thrown 
down." 

Dana says: *^A destructive earthquake wave 
was felt at the Hawaiian Islands on May 10, 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 185 

1877, which rose at Hilo to a height of 36 feet. 
But it was of South American origin, where there 
were heavy earth-shocks, and not of Hawaiian/' 

One of the eruptions from Mokuaweoweo 
tried to take possession of a river-bed, but the 
waters chilled one side of the lava and built 
it into a wall. On one side was flowing fire and 
on the other the swift rapids of a river. The 
antagonistic elements sought the sea side by 
side. 

A native account of Kilauea in ^'Ka Hae 
Hawaii [The Hawaiian Flag]" was published in 
Honolulu in March, 1859. In it is a very 
interesting native account of eruptions on the 
island Hawaii. The sketch is in the quaint 
Hawaiian tongue and is valuable throughout, 
but only a few extracts from the translation can 
be used at present. The story as told by the 
Hawaiian runs as follows: 

*^In the very ancient time Mauna Kea threw 
out vast Pele fires, but long ago these eruptions 
have been imprisoned. The earth has covered 
them in on all sides and the abundant soil, 
large trees, and green things of many kinds are 
multiplying. But not so Mauna Loa and 
Hualalai, other mountains of this island Hawaii. 
Pele fires have burst forth from them even up 
to recent times. 

"Mauna Loa is the greatest of all the moun- 



l86 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

tains, opening doors for the Pele fires from all its 
sides. Kilauea and Mokuaweoweo are the very 
wonderful Pele pits (craters) discharging fire from 
the very depths of the mountains. 

^^In the year 1822, or 1823 perhaps, there was 
an eruption from Kilauea pouring down into 
the Kau district very close to the Puna line. 
From the depths of Kilauea was this bursting 
forth. The a-a (broken lava) of this eruption 
in its journey to the sea spread about eight 
miles. In the year 1832 the pit of Kilauea was 
full of burning a-a. It broke into some ancient 
tunnel connected with Kilauea and flowed 
away. The place where the a-a reached the 
sea is not known. It is supposed to have gone 
into the sea underground. 

*^In the year 1840, the people of Puna and 
Hilo districts saw a great fire inland. They 
thought that the forest wilderness was burning. 
That day was the Sabbath. The people as- 
sembled together and looked toward the place 
where the fire was very great and the air was 
heavy with smoke. Then they saw that this 
was not an ordinary forest fire but a Pele (an 
eruption). They could not see any a-a breaking 
out on the mountain, and therefore were greatly 
afraid that it was very near and would destroy 
their lands. Volumes of smoke rolled, curling 
upward, while the strong steam burst forth 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 187 

with reports like the firing of cannon. On the 
4th day of June that eruption poured down into 
the sea. Narrow was the flow in steep places 
and spread out widely in others. When it came 
to the sea mighty was the stormy rage and the 
boiling of the sea, the steam rising in clouds 
to the sky. There were built up on the beach 
two hills of black sand, about 400 feet in height. 
Only on the side from which the wind blew 
could any one come near. On the other side 
the smoke was very strong, offensive and sicken- 
ing like a volcano. Then there were burning 
ashes destroying every green thing for many 
miles. The lands of the people of Nanawale 
were quickly made a desolate wilderness by the 
heat and the overflowing lava. Some animals 
were caught by the lava and burned to death. 
None of the people were destroyed. They es- 
caped with poverty.'' 

A curious and interesting statement is made 
by the Hawaiian fishermen of Waikiki concern- 
ing a peculiar disturbance of the sea simultaneous 
with all seasons of volcanic agitation. One of 
the older and more intelligent fishermen says 
that from his boyhood he has known a pushing 
up and down, backward and forward, of the 
waters every time that Mauna Loa has shown 
activity in either of its great craters. Fishnets 
are so tossed about that it is almost impossible 



l88 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

to retain any fish in them. Hooks are so rapidly 
moved by the commotion in the waters that 
fishing with hook and Kne is not very successful. 
The Hawaiians call the ocean at such times 
kai-mimiki (the rushing sea). Mimiki is de- 
fined as a meeting of a returning wave with 
another advancing, and is sometimes used to 
express the confusion of advancing and re- 
turning tidal waves. Sometimes mimiki is used 
to denote the choppy waters which follow a 
storm. The inherent idea of the w^ord seems to 
be quick, independent action of waves, bringing 
them into conflict with each other and destroying 
the quiet, regular motion. 



* 




i 


m, 


Tr^^ ■ 


=~ 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 189 




IV 

CHANGES IN KILAUEA CRATER 

HERE have been two entirely distinct 
modifications in Kilauea. One belongs 
to the centuries and the mountain which 
the crater has been trying to build. The 
other relates to the fire-pit and the fire-lake 
therein. 

Kilauea is a mountain a little over 4,000 feet 
in altitude, closely connected with Mauna Loa, 
which is about 13,000 feet in altitude. It has 
been stated that there is some connection which 
affects the action of two lakes of lava in the two 
craters. 

Kilauea is a great bowl sunken in a plain which 
seems level but which slopes decidedly toward 
the large mountain on the one side and the ocean 
on the other. Above the present fire-pit rise 
great plateaus and a summit 500 feet above 
the edges of the present crater, and about one mile 
east of it. This elevation shows that at one time 
the lake of fire had its real crater rim extending 
far back of the site of the Volcano Hotel and 
very much higher than at present, and that 
great floods of lava were poured out over the 



I90 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

surrounding country at a height impossible for 
the new crater to attain. After these eruptions 
the fire-pit sank away, leaving great precipitous 
walls and wide cracks out of which even now 
pour clouds of steam of such intense heat and 
such powerful sulphur fumes that animals fall- 
ing in are killed instantly. 

There are several terraces showing how the pre- 
cipices, cracks, and plateaus followed each other 
step by step down to the bed of Kilauea itself. 
There are hints of these changes in the tradi- 
tions of the Hawaiians, but it is impossible to 
know exactly what is meant. Rev. William 
Ellis, author of ^^ Polynesian Researches,'' and a 
deputation of the American missionaries study- 
ing the opportunities for missionary labor, while 
making a tour around Hawaii in 1823, visited 
Kilauea and wrote the following description of 
the volcano. In this report, afterward incor- 
porated in ^* Polynesian Researches" as Volume 
IV, the following account is given of ancient 
Kilauea. *'We asked the natives with us to 
tell us what they knew of the history of this vol- 
cano. From them we learned that it had been 
burning from time immemorial, or to use their 
own words *mai ka po mai' (from chaos until 
now) and had inundated some part of the country 
during the reign of every king that had gov- 
erned Hawaii. In earlier ages it used to boil 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 191 

up, overflow its banks, and inundate the ad- 
jacent country; but for many kings' reigns past it 
had kept below the level of the surrounding plain, 
continually extending its surface and increasing 
its depth, and occasionally throwing up with vio- 
lent explosions huge rocks and red hot stones. 
These eruptions, they said, were always accom- 
panied by dreadful earthquakes, loud claps of 
thunder and vivid and quick succeeding light- 
ning. No great explosion, they added, had 
taken place since the days of Keoua (a part of 
whose army was destroyed by a shower of ashes 
and foul gases in 1790), but many places near 
the sea had since been overflowed, on which 
occasions Pele went by a road underground from 
her house in the crater to the shore." 

Concerning Pele the natives said, ^ ^ Kirauea had 
been burning ever since the islands had emerged 
from night, but it was not inhabited till after 
the 'Tai a ka Hina rii,' the sea or deluge of Hina 
the chief." Shortly after this flood they say the 
present volcanic family came from Tahiti, mean- 
ing some foreign country, to Hawaii. 

When the crater was *^ boiling up, overflowing 
its banks, and inundating the adjacent territory," 
as the natives said, it poured out lava which 
became solid rock. As it went westward, the 
character of its overflow changed, becoming ex- 
plosive, hurling out cinders and ashes instead of 



192 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

boiling lava, so that all the land, especially toward 
the south and west, is covered with volcanic ash. 
For more than a hundred years there has been no 
uplift of lava or ashes over the outside crater rim. 

During this century there has been no marked 
change in the great edge of the bowl, but the in- 
terior has been kaleidoscopic. The bowl is flat- 
bottomed with a surface creased and cracked and 
rough, with twisted piles of dead lava. In in- 
numerable spots any cool morning welcomes rising 
clouds of steam and in the western part is the 
Lua-Pele, a pit filled with living fire. This 
outer crater is about three and a half miles across. 

A hundred years ago the floor of this crater was 
the scene of continual activity. Around the 
entire rim was a black ledge or balcony against 
which fountains of lava hurled their repeated 
drops, falling on the black ledge. Now, the fire- 
pit is but a little over a quarter of a mile in di- 
ameter, and yet it has the same form of black 
ledge which had been built up in the great crater 
so many years before. 

When first visited by the missionaries, there 
were many hilly islands, fountain cones, and hiss- 
ing blowholes. Later, the great floor began to 
cool and lakes appeared in different sections. 

In 1890, when the writer first saw the home 
of the fire-goddess, there were three lakes through 
which eruptive gases burst with explosions like 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 193 

the continual rattle of artillery, and there were 
two great rivers of lava flowing across the wide, 
black floor of the vast crater. Now there is only 
one lake of fire. Ka Lua Pele, the *^Pit of Pele," 
is at present on a small scale what the crater of 
Kilauea was in its magnitude in 1823 and for 
many years thereafter. 

The brief mention of shifting fires, flowing 
rivers, raging lakes, deep pits, falling walls, and 
frozen uneven lava surfaces must sufl&ce to make 
evident the stupendous forces of nature which 
have terrified the Hawaiians for centuries and 
have made them build up legends in and around 
these terrors and have created the demand for a 
special fire-goddess to take rank with the other 
gods worshipped. 




194 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 



V. 




FOUNDATION OF THE OBSERVATORY 

Excerpts from the Report of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory 
Jan.-Mch., 191 2. — Published by the Society of Arts of the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. 

HE Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, now 
in operation for five years from July i, 
191 2, under the direction of the Depart- 
ment of Geology of the Massstchusetts 
Institute of Technology, is the result and cul- 
mination of a succession of investigations, con- 
structions, appointments, and expeditions, mostly 
under that institution, which began in 1898 with 
the building of a small geodetic observatory in 
Boston. The work has been concerned with 
geodesy, astronomy, magnetism, and geology, 
and has been partly under the direction of officers 
of the Department of Civil Engineering and 
partly under professors of geology. The result 
of this activity that had the most direct bearing 
on the establishment of the volcano observatory 
was its influence on the trustees of the Whitney 
estates, who, on July i, 1909, gave to the Insti- 
tute the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars 
($25,000) as a memorial of Edward and Carohne 
Rogers Whitney of Boston, for the conduct of re- 



■ -.^ 




B'h^ 






h^ 






GEOLOGICAL FACTS 195 

search or teaching in geophysics to include in- 
vestigations in seismology, conducted with a 
view to the protection of human life and property, 
present preference being that some investiga- 
tions in geophysics be undertaken in Hawaii. 

The purpose of the science of geophysics is to 
investigate all the physical and chemical pro- 
cesses going on in the earth. Recent disasters 
such as Messina and San Francisco have shown 
how defective, for humane and practical pur- 
poses, our knowledge of these processes is. Be- 
fore the intervention of the Whitney trustees, it 
had been the desire of the Institute to secure a 
volcanic site in order to observe the local activi- 
ties of a particular volcano, as well as the waves 
which pass through the earth from distant earth- 
quakes. Professor Jaggar had, for some time past, 
been investigating and considering this subject. 

After mature deliberation Professor Jaggar 
concluded that Kilauea affords the best point for 
the location of the proposed observatory among 
those places in the world which have come to his 
knowledge, for the following reasons: 

*' I. At other volcanoes the eruptions are more 
explosive and an observatory located close enough 
to the centre of activity is in some danger. 
Kilauea, while displaying great and varied ac- 
tivity, is relatively safe. 

'^2. Other volcanoes are more or less con- 



196 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

nected in chains, making many stations necessary 
in order to determine the relations of the different 
craters to each other. Kilauea and Mauna Loa 
form an isolated centre of activity, over 2,000 
miles from the nearest active vent, so that the 
phenomena of these two vents can be recorded 
without complications occasioned by other near- 
by centres. 

*^3. Kilauea is very accessible. The near-by 
harbor at Hilo is only thirty-one miles distant; 
it may be reached by railroad and a good drive- 
way, and Honolulu, a centre of traffic and science, 
is easily reached in a day. 

^^4. The Central Pacific position is unique, 
and is of advantage for recording distant earth- 
quakes through the uninterrupted sea floor which 
lies between Hawaii and many earthquake places 
such as South America, Mexico, and Japan. For 
expeditions in case of disaster or otherwise, a 
relatively short route is assured, with abundant 
means of transportation to Pacific and East 
Indian ports. For the study of the deep sea 
floor, Hawaii is obviously favorable. 

^^5. The climate is uniform and the air clear 
for astronomical work. 

'^6. There are frequent small earthquakes, 
which are of great interest for technical reasons. 

^'7. The remarkable distribution of both hot 
and cold underground waters in Hawaii needs 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 197 

careful study, and this has an important bearing 
on agriculture as well as upon science. 

^^8. The territory is American, and these vol- 
canoes are famous in the history of science for 
their remarkably liquid lavas and nearly con- 
tinuous activity." 

Professor Jaggar consequently advised those 
interested: 

*^i. To erect buildings on the brink of the 
Volcano of Kilauea, in which to house the in- 
struments, library, and offices for working up 
and tabulating the statistics, records, and in- 
formation obtained. 

^^2. To set apart a room for a local museum, to 
exhibit to visitors instruments, plans, diagrams, 
maps, and photographs. This will be of value 
in exciting interest with a view to securing an 
endowment. 

^'3. To welcome advanced students from 
either the Institute or other institutions for 
special work in the laboratory. 

^^4. To erect subordinate instrument stations, 
with self-recording instruments, and to employ 
voluntary observers, at various points hereafter 
to be determined. It is hoped that eventually 
some work will be done by the staff of the ob- 
servatory in the study of tides, soundings, earth- 
quake waves, and the movements of the coast 
line of the island. 



igS GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

*'S. To send expeditions to other volcanic and 
earthquake belts for comparative studies. 

^*6. To carry on research, as may seem ex- 
pedient, in terrestrial gravitation, magnetism, 
and variation of latitude. 

^^7. To make a geological survey of the Island 
of Hawaii. It is hoped that this will lead to a 
thorough survey of the whole territory by the 
United States Geological Survey.'' 

He added that the main object of all the work 
should be humanitarian — earthquake prediction 
and methods of protecting life and property on 
the basis of sound scientific achievement. 

^^ Results obtained in connection with all sub- 
jects of investigation should be promptly pub- 
lished in the form of bulletins and memoirs." 

In pursuit of these ideas. Professor Jaggar 
proceeded to enlist support from the Chamber 
of Commerce and the leading citizens of Hono- 
lulu. A generous response came from a num- 
ber of organizations, including the Bishop 
Museum and individuals. 

The total amount promised was $3,450 per year 
for a period of five years. This sum was not 
sufficient to do the work satisfactorily and the 
development of the plan was halted in con- 
sequence. 

— The subscription of the Bishop Museum was 
made upon the condition that the Institute shall 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 199 

furnish the trustees without expense except for 
transportation, samples of all museum specimens 
collected, properly described, also copies of all 
published maps, surveys, and literature made 
by the Institute in connection with Hawaiian 
interests. — 

In the course of a journey to Japan Mr. Jaggar 
visited the volcano Kilauea in Hawaii twice, 
in March and in July, 1909. Professor Daly 
spent the summer in the Hawaiian Islands, mak- 
ing careful study of Kilauea and the result of his 
w^ork has since been published in vol. 47, no. 3, 
of the Proceedings of the American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences under the title, ^^The Nature 
of Volcanic Action. '^ Both of these expeditions 
were at private expense. 

In 1910 the first available income of the Whit- 
ney fund was used in the construction of special 
resistance thermometers made by Leeds and 
Northrup at Baltimore under the direction of 
Drs. A. L. Day and E. S. Shepherd of the Geo- 
physical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington. Dr. Day, director of this labora- 
tory, in correspondence with Professors Daly and 
Jaggar during the winter of 1909-10 agreed to 
send Dr. Shepherd to Kilauea and provide travel- 
ling expenses if the Institute of Technology would 
provide instruments and living expenses during 
a stay at the Volcano House devoted to measure- 



200 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

ment of the temperature of liquid lava. Dr. 
Shepherd is a chemist and a specialist in pyro- 
metric work. With the aid of Institute engineers 
a cableway was designed for spanning the inner 
pit of Halemaumau wherewith by a wire trolley 
system pyrometric apparatus might be lowered 
into the lava. 

During 1909 and 1910 three seismographs, 
in addition to the Bosch-Omori instruments 
already obtained with Whitney funds, were con- 
structed for the Institute in Tokyo under Dr. 
Omori's direction, and shipped to Honolulu. 

For two years in succession, 1910 and 191 1, it 
was impossible for any of the professors of ge- 
ology at the Institute to go to Hawaii, so ar- 
rangements were made with Mr. F. A. Perret of 
Springfield, Mass., and Naples, Italy, to take 
Professor Jaggar's place in an expedition to 
Kilauea for the measurement of temperatures 
as agreed with the Carnegie Geophysical Labo- 
ratory. The sum of $2,100 from the Whit- 
ney and other geological research funds of the 
Institute was expended on this expedition. 
The Institute is indebted to the Carnegie Geo- 
physical Laboratory for co-operation and for 
the thermo-element which was used in the final 
test, and to the Volcanic Research Society of 
Springfield, Mass., for the loan of the services of 
Mr. Perret, his salary being continued by that 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 20i 

society during his Hawaiian journey. Mr. Fer- 
ret built a wooden camp on the edge of the pit 
Halemaumau which he called the Technology 
Station and where he lived. 

It will appear from the foregoing that the work 
bearing on a proposed volcano observatory in 
Hawaii up to 191 2 was instituted and carried for- 
ward by the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology. That institution was materially aided 
in the conduct of this work by voluntary sub- 
scription among citizens of Honolulu. 

Some $6,100, in addition to salaries, was spent 
by the Institute of Technology for its officers for 
work in Hawaii prior to 191 2, and after Mr. 
Ferret's departure in November, 191 1, an ap- 
propriation of $1,700 for Frofessor Jaggar's work 
in Hawaii in the winter of 19 12 was made from 
Technology funds. 

The subscription fund provided for in Hono- 
lulu in 1909 was revived on October 5, 191 1, at a 
luncheon at the University Club, given for the 
organization of a Hawaiian Volcano Research 
Association. 

The net result of this meeting was to estab- 
lish an association in Honolulu for the sub- 
scription of money to volcano research. The 
committee representative of this association de- 
termined to name the organization '^Hawaiian 
Volcano Research Association. '^ Funds for the 



202 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

running expense of an observatory on Hawaii to 
the amount of $5,000 annually for five years from 
January i, 191 2, exclusive of the funds furnished 
by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
were subscribed, the full amount in the event of 
failure on the part of individual subscribers being 
guaranteed by Mr. Clarence H. Cooke, treasurer, 
through the generosity of Mr. Cooke and his 
associates of the estate of C. M. Cooke, Ltd. 

The Institute was prepared to co-operate with 
the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association by 
becoming its largest subscriber for the five years, 
through the income of the Whitney fund and the 
current payment to its Seismological fund. 

On January 19 a subscription was started in 
the town of Hilo to provide funds wherewith to 
build a laboratory near the Volcano House for 
the use of the representative of the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology engaged in vol- 
canic research. This proposal met a most 
hearty response and within a few days $1,785 
was subscribed. 

The land for the Observatory, a tract of about 
three acres, was obtained on a sub-lease for 
fifteen years to October i, 1927, from the Vol- 
cano House Company with the consent of the 
trustees of the Bishop Estate, the owners of the 
land. This tract is on the edge of the cliff di- 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 203 

rectly opposite the grounds of the Volcano House 
on the south side of the Puna-Kau road. The 
observatory is built of Oregon pine and is equipped 
with two laboratories, the director's room, photo- 
graphic dark room, and storeroom on the main 
floor. A veranda extending along two sides 
commands extensive views of the three volcanoes, 
Kilauea, Mauna Loa, and Mauna Kea. In 
front there is a concrete post for geodetic and 
photographic experiments. The furniture in- 
cludes large cases of drawers, for storage of 
specimens, maps, or photographs, and there are 
work and drafting tables. 

The Whitney Laboratory of Seismology, eigh- 
teen feet square, is a basement room of concrete 
floored on the solid ledge of basalt. This is the 
rock of the uppermost layer of the cliff which 
here borders the greater crater of Kilauea. The 
cellar was dug through 5)^ feet of ash and pumice 
which make the surface soil. The piers for seis- 
mographs were designed for a set of instruments 
built in Tokyo in 19 10 under the direction of 
Professor Omori and purchased with the income 
of the Whitney fund. 

On January 24, 1912, Mr. F. B. Dodge of Hono- 
lulu arrived at the volcano to become assistant to 
the director and during the ensuing weeks ar- 
rangements were completed and trigonometric 



204 GEOLOGICAL FACTS 

stations installed whereby a daily survey of the 
active lava pool could be made. 

The Territorial Government loaned the ser- 
vices of a part of the prison gang which does 
the road work for the Territory of Hawaii, to 
clear the land, dig the cellar, and build the road- 
way of the Observatory^ 

An additional hut constructed wholly without 
iron for possible magnetic work was built on the 
verge of Halemaumau for direct instrumental 
observations of the lava, under shelter. 

The fundamental idea expressed at the time of 
the formation of the Hawaiian Volcano Research 
Association was to the effect that the crater ob- 
servations should be continuous and permanent. 
From the point of view of the educator, however, 
there is another equally vital work to be accom- 
plished by such an experiment station as the 
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, namely, pro- 
vision for scientific hospitality. The study of 
geophysics and geochemistry in the field is so ex- 
tensive and inclusive a department of science 
that no resident staff could hope to cover the 
whole field without large expense and a very large 
working force. Moreover the spirit of generous 
exchange of opportunity and of ideas in science, 
with a liberal welcome to serious students of 
all schools, is modern and novel, and should 




MAP OF HAWAII 



GEOLOGICAL FACTS 205 

promote the most rapid progress. Accordingly 
it is proposed in the Hawaiian Observatory to 
combine two objects, record of facts of volcan- 
ology and seismology by the permanent staff, 
and surveys in the field of special topics by 
expert specialists invited to come from other 
institutions. 



APPENDIX 



PARTIAL LIST HAWAIIAN TERMS USED 



Aa, 175, 184, 186. 
Ahua, 40-43. 
aikane, 93, no. 
Ailaau, 1-3, 89. 
Aiwohikupua, 57, 58. 
Akanikolea, 46, 47. 
alahuna, 175. 
Alapai, 161. 
aloha, 21, no. 
Aloipauaa, 39, 43. 
amama, 114. 
Aukelenuiaku, 8, 71. 
aumakua, 12, 13, 16, ss, 63. 
awa, 99. 

eepa, 97. 

Haehae, 76. 

Haena, 75, 78, 82, S3, 86, 94, 127, 
hala, 32, 73, no. 
Halaauola, 77, 
Halawa, 131. 
Haleakala, n, 56, 171. 
Halemaumau, 23, 44, 200, 204. 
Hamakua, 57, 60. 
Hapakuela, 71. 
Haumea, 4, 8, 64, 68, 69. 
Hawaii, 1-203. 
Hea, 131. 
heeholua, 37. 
heenalu, 37. 

Hiiaka, 5-9, 69, 72, 83-138. 
Hilo, 28, 36, S3, 66, 74, 108, 109, 
no, 136, 139, 140, 144, 151, 158. 
Hina, 6, 64, 191. 
Hoaika, 124. 
Hoaiku, 103, 124. 
holua, 22, 23, 38-42, 60. 
Honolulu, 10. 
Honuaiakea, 9. 

Hopoe, 28, 87-95, 109, no, 234. 
Hualalai, 57, 146, 172, 185. 
Huehue, 147, 148. 
hula, 74, 79, 86, 88. 
Hulihia, 73, 84. 
humuhumu, 45, 105. 
hunahuna, 82. 

ikoi, 16. 
Iku, 9, SI- 
ipuholoholona, 112. 

Ka, 105. 



Kaahumanu, 149, 150. 

Kaakaauea, 44. 

Kaeaniuaula, 44. 

Kaelehuluhulu, 148. 

Kahanai, 14. 

Kahawali, 37-44. 

Kahikinui, n. 

kahili, 73. 

Kahoupokane, 57. 

kahu, 97. 

Kahuku, 22-25. 

kahuna, 44. 

Kailua, 153. 

Kaimimiki, 177, 188. 

Kalakaua, 65, 66. 

Kalakeenui-o-Kane, 9. 

Kalalau, 15. 

Kalaniopuu, 139. 

Kaliu, 91. 

Kalua, 174, 193. 

Kamaka-a-ke-akua, 148, 157. 

Kamakau, 140. 

Kamapuaa, 45-54, 7i, loS- 

Kamehameha, 139-157, 168. 

Kamohoalii, 5, 9, 63, 68, 72. 

Kanakawahine, 39. 

Kanaloa, 64, 137. 

Kane, 64, 81, 114. 

Kaneakalau, 31. 

Kanehekili, 69. 

Kanehoalani, 7, 48, 64. 

Kanehunamoku, 5. 

Kanepuahiohio, 5. 

Kapiolani, 139, 152-163. 

Kapo, 70. 

Kapoho, 28, 39. 

Kapueuli, 44. 

Kau, 14-16, 186. 

Kauai, 10-16, 58, 71, 74, 75, 76, 

77, 78, 79, 81, 85, 135. 
Kauanohunohu, 44. 
kauila, 37. 
Kaunu, 127. 
Kauwilanui, 69. 
Kawaihae, 141. 
Keaau, 73, 74, 93, 94- 
Keahialaka, 3. 
Kealakekua, 182. 
Kealiamanu, 10. 
Kealiapaakai, 10. 
Kealohilani, 133. 
Keauka, 5. 
Keaumiki, 5. 



APPENDIX 



Keawemauhili, 139, 152. 

Kee^ 183. 

Keliikuku, 31. 

Keoua, 139-145, 191. 

kihei, 42. 

Kilauea, 2-7, 18-36, 50-66, 86-89, 

113, ii4i 124, i35» 139, 140- 

153, 173-203. 
Kilinoe, 79, 81. 
kiluai, III. 
Kinoohu, 100. 
Kiwalao, 139, 152. 
Koa, 14, 15. 
Koahi, 5. 
Koai, 39. 

Kohala, 53, 105, 122. 
Kolea, 106. 
kolonahe, 82. 
Kona, 153, 156. 
Ku, 64, 68, 105, 137. 
Kuaihelani, 14, 71. 
Kukaepuaa, 52. 
Kukii, 42. 
kumawaho, 51. 
Kumukahi, 27-29, 46. 
Kuokoa, 7, 140, 147. 
kupilikia, iii. 
kupua, 14, 45, 97, 117. 
Kuwahailo, 8, 64, 65, 68. 

Laieikawai, 57. 

Laka, 7, 74. 

Lanahiku, 93. 

Laupahoehoe, 62. 

Leahi, 10. 

leho, 46. 

lehua, 75, 81, 91, 109. 

lei, 12, no. 

Liholiho, 153. 

Lilinoe, 56. 

Lohiau, 6, 71-96, 125-138. 

Lono, 80, 85. 

Lonomakua, 51, 52, I37, 138. 

Mahiki, 119, 120, 122. 

Mahuike, 67. 

maile, 75. 

Makaukiu, 1 18-12 2. 

mana, 14, 92. 

Maui, 58, 59, 66, 67, 139, 140, 171. 

Mauliola, 77. 

Mauna Kea, 5S-6o, 140, 141, 171, 

178, 185, 203. 
Mauna Loa, 12, 61, 62, 77, 141, 

173, 178-203. 
Menehune, 7. 
Moanalua, 10. 
Moemoeaoulii, 4. 



Mokuaweoweo, 173, 174, 178, 185. 
Mokuola, 28. 
Mona, 141. 
moo, 97. 
Moolau, 122, 124. 

Naihe, 152, 153, 155, 156. 
Namakaokahai, 8-11, 14, 63, 64. 

68. 
Nanahuki, 109. 
Naue, 85. 

Niihau, 5, 6, 80, 81, 85. 
Noho, 120, 121. 
Nuuhiwa, 67. 
Nuumealani, 9-12. 

Oahu, 10, 31, 43-50. 
Oalalaua, 157. 
ohelo, 154. 
ohia, 32, 36, 88, 100. 
Onomea, 62. 
opelu, 48. 

pahoehoe, 175. 

Palaau, 77. 

Panaewa, 98-103. 

Paoa, 6-1 1, 51. 

Papa, 4, 6^. 

Papalauahi, 29, 30, 109. 

pau, 91,123. 

Pauopalae, 97, 125, 130, 132. 

Pele, 3-205. 

Pii, 14-17. 

Pikeha, 49. 

Pili, 120, 121. 

Poliahu, 55-62. 

Pueo, 17. 

Puna, 27, 29, 35, 66, 72, 73, 80, 

86, 94, 157. 
Punaluu, 179, 180. 
Puu-o-Pele, 10. 

tabu, 47, 72, 115. 
ti, 72, 85, 128, 173- 

uhiuha, 84. 
Ululani, 150. 
Uwekahuna, 44. 

Wahieloa, 71. 
Wahineomao, 104-138. 
Waiakea, 184. 
Waialama, 184. 
Waiau, 56, 57. 
Waikiki, 187. 
Wailuku, 120. 
Waimea, 140. 
Waipio, 122. 



POLYNESIAN LANGUAGE 



"A few words should be added on the peculiar genius and 
structure of the Polynesian language in general and of the 
Hawaiian dialect in particular. 

It is the law of all Polynesian languages that every word 
and syllable must end in a vowel, so that no two consonants 
are ever heard without a vowel sound between them. 

Most of the radical words are dissyllables, and the accent 
is generally on the penult. The Polynesian ear is as nice in 
marking the slightest variations in vowel sound as it is dull 
in distinguishing consonants. 

The vocabulary of the Hawaiian is probably richer than 
that of most other Polynesian tongues. Its child-like and 
primitive character is shown by the absence of abstract words 
and general terms. 

As has been well observed by M. Gaussin, there are three 
classes of words, corresponding to as many different stages 
of language: first, those that express sensations; second, 
images; third, abstract ideas. 

Not only are names wanting for the more general abstrac- 
tions, such as space, nature, fate, etc., but there are very 
few generic terms. For example there is no generic term for 
animal, expressing the whole class of living creatures or for 
insects or for colors. At the same time it abounds in specific 
names and in nice distinctions. 

So in the Hawaiian everything that relates to their every- 
day life or to the natural objects with which they are con- 
versant is expressed with a vivacity, a minuteness and nicety 
of coloring which cannot be reproduced in a foreign tongue. 
Thus the Hawaiian was very rich in terms for every variety 
of cloud. It has names for every species of plant on the 
mountains or fish in the sea, and is peculiarly copious in terms 
relating to the ocean, the surf and waves. 

For whatever belonged to their religions, their handicrafts 
or their amusements, their vocabulary was most copious and 
minute. Almost every stick in a native house had its appro- 
priate name. Hence it abounds in synonyms which are such 
only in appearance, i.e., "to be broken" as a stick is *haki,* 
as a string is *moku,' as a dish 'naha,' as a wall *hina.' 

Besides the language of every-day life, there was a style 
appropriate to oratory and another to religion and poetry. 

The above-mentioned characteristics make it a pictorial 
and expressive language. It still has the freshness of child- 
hood. Its words are pictures rather than colorless and 
abstract symbols of ideas, and are redolent of the mountain, 
the forest and the surf. 



POLYNESIAN LANGUAGE — Continued 

However it has been and is successfully used to express the 
abstractions of mathematics, of English law, and of theology." 



**The Hawaiian is but a dialect of the great Polynesian 
language, which is spoken with extraordinary uniformity over 
all the numerous islands of the Pacific Ocean between New 
Zealand and Hawaii. Again, the Polynesian language is but 
one member of that wide-spread family of languages, known 
as the Malayo-Polynesian or Oceanic family, which extends 
from Madagascar to the Hawaiian Islands and from New 
Zealand to Formosa. The Hawaiian dialect is peculiarly in- 
teresting to the philologist from its isolated position, being the 
most remote of the family from its primeval seat in South- 
eastern Asia, and leading the van with the Malagasy in the rear. 
We believe the Hawaiian to be the most copious and expressive, 
as well as the richest in native traditional history and poetry. 
Dr. Reinhold Forster, the celebrated naturalist of Captain 
Cook's second voyage, drew up a table containing 47 words 
taken from 11 Oceanic dialects and the corresponding terms 
in Malay, Mexican, Peruvian and Chilian. From this table 
he inferred that the Polynesian languages afiEord many analo- 
gies with the Malay while they present no point of contact 
with the American.'^ 

Baron William von Humboldt, the distinguished statesman 
and scholar, showed that the Tagala, the leading language of 
the PhiUppine Islands, is by far the richest and most perfect 
of these languages. **It possesses," he says, *'all the forms 
collectively of which particular ones are found singly in other 
dialects; and it has preserved them all with very trifling ex- 
ceptions unbroken and in entire harmony and symmetry." 

The languages of the Oceanic region have been divided into 
six great groups; i.e., the Polynesian; the Micronesian; the 
Melanesian or Papuan; the Australian; the Malaysian; 
the Malagasy. Many examples might be given if they were 
needed to illustrate the connection of these languages. The 
Polynesian is an ancient and primitive member of the Malay 
family. The New Zealand dialect is the most primitive and 
entire in its forms. The] Hawaiians, Marquesans and Tahit- 
ians form a closely related group by themselves. For ex- 
ample, the Marquesan converts are using Hawaiian books and 
the people of the Austral Islands read the Tahitian Bible." 

The above was written by W. D. Alexander in Honolulu in 
1865, author of the "History of the Hawaiian Islands" as 
preface to Andrew's Dictionary. 



PRESS NOTICES HAWAIIAN LEGENDS 




LEGENDS OF OLD HONOLULU. Published July, 1915. 
LEGENDS OF GHOSTS AND GHOST-GODS. Jan., 1916. 
LEGENDS OF HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES. Oct., 1916. 
By William Drake Westervelt. 

Press of Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston. 
i2mo, $1.50, net; small, $1.00, net. 

In the old days of our grandfathers, Oregon and Hawaii 
enjoyed quite a brisk trade. Friendships were made that 
lasted. Along this line of thought here is a book that will 
be welcomed gladly by Oregon readers. It is a collection 
of tales on Hawaiian Mythology skilfully edited by W. D. 
Westervelt of Honolulu and bound at the press of Geo. H. 
Ellis Co., Boston.— r^e Oregonian, Portland, Ore., Aug., igi6. 



Press Notices (continued). 

In bringing together this collection Mr. Westervelt has done 
a favor to the residents of Hawaii and those visitors to its 
shores who take an interest in its original inhabitants. — The 
Bee, Omaha, Neb., June, igi6. 

The Polynesian type is one of the most attractive that 
mankind has ever developed and the Hawaiian is typically 
Polynesian. The migration of the Polynesian race over the 
great ocean is one of the marvelous achievements of man, and 
the legends, incidentally, when not intentionally, throw much 
light on this movement. This volume of ''Ghosts and Ghost- 
gods " is the second of a series of six which the author plans. 
Nowhere else in culture is legendary lore more ample or 
rich; nowhere else does human character present stranger con- 
tradictions; nowhere else does belief more nearly approach the 
wild-fantastic. No book in Mr. Westervelt's series will more 
strikingly display these qualities than this one on ghosts and 
ghost-gods. — Sunday State Journal, Wis., June, igi6. 

Unquestionably the most complete and entertaining dis- 
closure of the rich treasure-store of mid-Pacific myth with 
which the English-speaking world has yet been favored. 
WTien the series is finished, there will have been little unsaid 
on a subject intensely attractive to the mythologist, the 
student of comparative religion and the ethnologist. — 
Deseret Evening News, Salt Lake City, Utah, June, igi6. 

A student of mythology will find many links between these 
legends and those of far-distant lands. The book will have 
vital interest for all lovers of folk-lore who will find much 
information in these tales of ancient tribes. — Book News, 
Philadelphia, Dec., 191 5. 

While the book will be of especial interest to students of 
ethnology and to those who have visited Honolulu, the 
romantic charm which pervades the Pacific Archipelago gives 
the history universal attraction to the reading public. — Globe ^ 
Boston, Mass., Oct. 25, 1915. 

A valuable addition to the world's collection of folk-lore 
is made by Mr. W. D. Westervelt in ''Legends of Old Hono- 
lulu." — New York Times, Jan. 16, igi6. 

Lovers of legendary Folk-lore may feast upon this collec- 
tion of traditional tales of the Hawaiian people and their 
origin as first told by the old Hawaiian and sometimes 
touched up by the Hawaiian story-teller. Mr. Westervelt, a 
resident of Honolulu, was president of the Hawaiian Historical 
Society for some time. — Boston Transcript, Aug. 11, 1915. 



Press Notices (continued). 

All these legends have their own particular appeal and the 
book may be classed among the rare offerings of the year. — 
Buffalo Courier f Aug. 29 ^ iQiS- 

He writes as one well versed in his subject and some of the 
legends which he presents are of great beauty and show a fine 
and delicate imagination in their authors. — London Times y 
Sept. 23, 1915, 

Mr. Westervelt is a historian of recognized standing and 
has given much time to the study of the Hawaiian Folk-Lore. 
— The Friend, Sept., 191 5. 

His contribution to folk-lore is as important and valuable 
as his books are attractive and interesting to read. — San 
FranciscOy Cal.y Jan. 8y 1916. 

These legends show no lack of imagination on the part 
of the Hawaiian. They are simple, filled with superstition 
and largely concerned with wonderful chiefs and animals 
with extraordinary powers. — Christian Science Monitory Aug.y 
1915- 

Mr. Westervelt has made a noteworthy contribution to 
legendary literature. — Bellmany Minn., Sept.y 1915. 

Some entertaining stories are told by Mr. W. D. Westervelt 
in his collection of "Legends of Old Honolulu." — Spectator, 
London, Oct., 191 5. 

These legends will prove of unusual interest to the general 
reader and especially to the scholar, thinker and poet. They 
describe vividly and strongly the triumphs and wanderings 
of the people of Hawaii. — Overland Monthly, San Francisco, 
Oct., 1915. 

Mr. Westervelt has long been an active observer of the 
aboriginal condition of Hawaiian life and the stories he has 
discovered have added not a little to our knowledge of the 
Polynesian race as it was before the dawn of history. — Scots- 
man, Sept., 1 91 5. 

These interesting legends, some of which are very old, fur- 
nish almost a history of the Hawaiian thought. — Int. Review 
of Missions, Edinburgh, 1915. 

Those who are interested in the distant possessions of the 
U.S. will welcome this volume of "Legends of Old Honolulu" 
by W. D. Westervelt. They depict the typical native life 
of Hawaii. Other volumes are in press. — So. Atlantic 
Quarterly, Durham, N.C., Jan., 1916. 



Press Notices (continued). 

The Hawaiian Legends have a quality of their own. The 
book is pleasing in design with many illustrations. — Dial, 
Chicago, Dec. i, iQiS- 

Thanks to Mr. Westervelt the reading public has learned 
more of the natives of Hawaii and their folk-lore. The 
book is handsomely designed and illustrated. — Pittsburgh 
Chronicle, 1915- 

The stories tell of the struggles, triumphs and wanderings 
of the people and while they are full of interest as merely 
stories, they have a special value to all who are concerned 
with the study of comparative folk-lore. — Bookseller, London, 
Aug. 10, 191 5. 

All the legends are fresh and charming and help to give 
glimpses into the workings of the thought and imagination 
of the simple dwellers in the Isles of the South Seas. Mr. 
Westervelt is to be congratulated on his new contribution 
to our better knowledge of the fast-dwindling people whom 
he knows and loves so well. — Herald, Glasgow, Sept. 23, 1915- 

An entertaining dip into Hawaiian mythology is reserved 
for readers of ** Legends of Gods and Ghosts," whose author 
is W. D. Westervelt. The tales are collected from native 
tongues and put into English with no apparent sacrifice of 
their interest and charm. The Hawaiians have developed 
some beautiful nature-myths, which are well worth preserva- 
tion as companion pieces with the better known fairy stories 
that come to us from Europe and Asia. Tales of fisher 
folks, of mountain habitants, of magic fishhooks and of 
creatures who could take on the form of man or of sea monster 
at will — such are the legends handed down from generation 
to generation among these mid-Pacific people. They are 
worth reading. — Boston: The George H. Ellis Co. Press. — 
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mar. 25, igi6. 

Gods and Goddesses tower in the place allotted to fairies 
in Europe and to genii in Asia and the book is of the greatest 
interest to the student of stories. — Bookseller, London, Aug. 10, 
1915. 

Just as their music is weirdly sweet so the legends of the 
Hawaiians have a fascinating beauty about them. Not only to 
the anthropologist but to the general reader all the myths have 
their appeal. — Springfield Republican, 1916. 

Mr. Westervelt includes among his legends ** Ghosts and 
Ghost-gods" something about homeless and desolate ghosts, 
ancestor ghosts, and dragon ghost-gods. He has illustrated 



Press Notices (continued). 

with twelve pictures of Hawaiian scenery and fish plates in 
color. ... So out of this rich material Mr. Westervelt makes 
an interesting book. Most persons never outgrow fairy 
tales and these have a novelty and glamour that we associate 
with far-off tropical Polynesia. — Transcript, Boston, igi6. 

The note of the story does not often rise above the carnal 
but now and then a higher note is struck of friendship, 
marital love and loyalty, courage for high ends. As a con- 
tribution to aboriginal folk-lore Mr. Westervelt's book takes 
a distinct place. — Herald, Boston, Mass., Jan. 2g, igi6. 

Greek Mythology, red Indian Folk-lore and Andersen's 
Fairy Tales are made of one stuff and kin to them all are 
these South Sea Island Stories told by Mr. W. D. Westervelt. — 
New York Sun, Jan. 23, igi6. 

These legends reveal an extraordinary understanding of 
Nature's ways and moods and unveil early history with a 
mythological setting. — San Francisco, Feb.^ igi6. 



The author purposes to bring out during 191 7: 

LIFE OF KAMEHAMEHA. 
LEGENDS OF MAUI. 
HISTORICAL LEGENDS. 



